I&B Ministry
Dasmunshi replaces Jaipal Reddy as I&B minister
MUMBAI / NEW DELHI: The long awaited cabinet reshuffle has thrown up a surprise as far as the information and broadcasting portfolio is concerned. The man whos got affected the maximum is information and broadcasting minister S. Jaipal Reddy.
While Reddy was today moved out of information and broadcasting ministry and given the charge of urban development, he has been replaced by Priya Ranjan Dasmunshi.
New I&B minister Dasmunshi also retains the parliamentary affairs portfolio which he got as additional charge after the exit of Ghulam Nabi Azad a fortnight ago. Water Resources, till now held by Dasmunshi,however moves to heavy industry and public enterprises minister Santosh Mohan Deb as an additional charge.
Dasmunshi, a career politician, also heads Indian football’s official body All India Football Federation (AIFF), which recently signed a telecast deal for domestic football with Zee Sports for an undisclosed amount.
Reddy, meanwhile, has been given charge of urban development while retaining the portfolio of culture minister.
Dasmunshi, a Congress Party loyalist, unlike Reddy (who has moved around a bit amongst political parties), contested from Raiganj West Bengal and won the parliamentary seat.
Though Reddy was dignified when the news broke, he did admit to a journalist in the evening that there was a soft campaign in the Congress Party against him.
Speaking to a TV channel, a seemingly upset Reddy responded by defending his record in the I&B ministry. “There has never been a flurry of activity in policy making (in the I&B ministry) in the last 58 years as there was in the last one year,” he was quoted by ndtv.com as saying
In the meanwhile, the Prime Minister retained the foreign ministry portfolio that had become headless after minister Natwar Singh was shunted out in the aftermath of the UN-sponsored Volcker report.
I&B Ministry
Government sets up AI governance group to steer policy
AIGEG to align ministries, assess jobs impact, guide AI deployment.
MUMBAI: If artificial intelligence is the engine, the government is now building the dashboard and making sure everyone reads from the same screen. The Centre has constituted a new inter-ministerial body to coordinate India’s approach to AI, formalising a key recommendation from its governance framework and the Economic Survey. The AI Governance and Economic Group (AIGEG), set up by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, will act as the central platform to align AI-related policy across ministries, regulators and departments, an attempt to bring coherence to what has so far been a fragmented and fast-evolving landscape.
The group will be chaired by union minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, with minister of state Jitin Prasada as vice chairperson. Its composition reflects both technological and economic priorities, bringing together the principal scientific adviser, the chief economic adviser, and the CEO of NITI Aayog, alongside key secretaries from telecommunications, economic affairs and science and technology. A representative from the National Security Council Secretariat is also part of the group, while the MeitY secretary will serve as member convenor.
At its core, AIGEG is designed to do two things: coordinate and anticipate. On the policy front, it will review existing regulatory mechanisms, issue guidance across sectors and ensure companies remain compliant with evolving legal frameworks. Beyond that, it will oversee national initiatives on AI governance, with a focus on enabling responsible innovation rather than merely regulating it.
The economic dimension is equally central. The group has been tasked with assessing how AI-driven automation could reshape jobs identifying which roles are most at risk, where those impacts may be geographically concentrated, and whether technology will augment or replace human labour. Based on these assessments, it will develop mitigation strategies and transition plans, signalling a more proactive stance on workforce disruption.
In parallel, AIGEG will work with industry stakeholders to chart a long-term roadmap for AI adoption, categorising use cases into “deploy”, “pilot” or “defer” buckets depending on readiness factors such as data availability, skill levels and regulatory clarity. The aim is to move from broad ambition to structured execution deciding not just what can be built, but what should be built now.
The group will function as the apex layer in India’s AI governance architecture, supported by a Technology and Policy Expert Committee that will track global developments, emerging risks and regulatory priorities. Together, the two bodies are expected to shape both the pace and direction of AI adoption in the country.
In a landscape where technology often outruns policy, the creation of AIGEG signals an attempt to close that gap ensuring that India’s AI journey is not just rapid, but also coordinated, accountable and economically grounded.
