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Pramod Mahajan to head infotech ministry

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CIOL Bureau
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BANGALORE: Parliamentary affairs minister Pramod Mahajan has got the additional charge of the newly created information technology department in a Cabinet reshuffle. With the appointment of Mr Mahajan as originally envisaged, the priority will now be to clarify major aspects of its work allocation and define its overall role over the next few days. There is no overlap of functions with the commerce and telecom ministries, and the underlying agenda of the ministry would be to "promote the growth of the Internet, not regulate it'', official sources said.



The infotech ministry is to deal with "all policy matters relating to IT and promote knowledge-based enterprises''. Other issues like "promotion of the Internet and E-commerce" will also be defined, given that the licensing and regulation wing of the Department of Telecom (DoT) still governs some Internet affairs.



Earlier, the nodal agency for the Net was the DoT, with the current licenses for Internet services having been given by the DoT, and the powers relating to the tariffs being with the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India. In fact, communications minister Ramvilas Paswan has already made his intention of DoT retaining its Internet services function, by announcing the promotion of Internet "dhabas'' in the country. The infotech ministry will also be the nodal ministry for IT education as well as organizations like the Electronics and Computer Software Export Promotion Council.

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