I&B Ministry
I&B ministry readies for a new head in Ravi Shankar Prasad?
MUMBAI: Last night it was well-informed speculation. Today it is as good as confirmed. Though the official announcement is still to be made, information & broadcasting ministry sources say the next head of Shastri Bhavan will almost certainly be the present minister of state for coal & mines with additional charge of law & justice Ravi Shankar Prasad.
As reported earlier on indiantelevision.com, I&B minister Sushma Swaraj is expected to have a change of portfolio to parliamentary affairs. The new information on this front is that she will also be getting additional charge of the health portfolio which is being taken away from cine star Shatrugan Sinha.
Prasad, who is articulate and a familiar face on news channels, where he speaks for the BJP during political debates, is expected to get independent charge of the I&B ministry.
Prasad, who is the brother-in-law of journalist turned Rajya Sabha MP Rajeev Shukla, is the elder brother of Anuradha Prasad, who heads BAG Films. Anuradha Prasad’s production house delivers software to both Star India and Doordarshan,
With Swaraj out of I&B, it will be left to Prasad to oversee the rollout of conditional access systems in the broadcast sector, an area in which she showed a deep focus interest. The question that arises is whether Prasad will show the zeal that Swaraj showed in the matter, especially since the notification for the implementation of CAS in the four metros of Mumbai, New Delhi, Kolkata and Chennai has already been issued. The deadline has been set as 15 July.
The I&B ministry is still to announce what will be the cost of the basic tier of free to air channels under CAS as too how many channels will be included in it. That may well be among the first issues that Prasad takes up as an A priority. Then there is also the pending issue of Star India’s application for an uplinking licence for its Star News channel. Prasad will certainly have enough on his plate from Day 1.
Meanwhile, The information technology and communications ministry, earlier under Pramod Mahajan, is reportedly shifting to disinvestment minister Arun Shourie who will hold additional charge of that portfolio.
Mahajan, who resigned from his cabinet post as information technology, communications and parliamentary affairs minister last night, will take charge as party general secretary.
While this had been reported last night by indiantelevision.com, Arun Jaitley, with whom he swaps places as BJP general secretary, will be heading the law and commerce ministries and not Mahajan’s earlier portfolios. This will be Jaitley’s second stint in the law ministry.
See related story:
Mahajan, Jaitley trade places; Swaraj may move to parliamentary affairs
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.
