I&B Ministry
Jaipal Reddy expected to plunge into work from the start
NEW DELHI: After a lot of bickering within the Congress party and its allies, the information and broadcasting ministry portfolio finally went to someone who really deserved it, despite his seniority — Jaipal Reddy. He will also have additional charge of culture.
Reddy, an articulate and erudite politician, has been the I&B minister during the short stint that the United Front government had at the Centre in Delhi in the late 1990s. The announcement of was made late on Sunday.
A 45-minute-long meeting that was held at the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) in South Block last evening was attended by the cabinet ministers even as the announcement about their portfolios got delayed apparently due to differences among some of the allies with regard to a few specific ministries.
Reddy, who is regarded in the I&B ministry and government circles as an intelligent and level headed politician, is expected to take charge today and dive straight into some of the pressing issues within the jurisdiction of the ministry like the second phase of FM radio privatization, conditional access system and DTH licences that may have to be issued to prospective players, which includes the Tatas-Star combine.
(Indiantelevision.com learns from government sources that the letter of intent for the Tatas-Star combine for a DTH service is ready and is awaiting a formal nod from the new I&B minister.)
Incidentally, Reddy is the I&B minister under whose regime the United Front government in 1997 issued an Ordinance banning and keeping of any instrument capable of receiving TV signals over 4,800 MHz, the signal strength generally in which KU-band direct-to-home (DTH) TV services are beamed.
But, Reddy is also credited with having piloted in Parliament the broadcast bill, envisaging a regulatory framework for the broadcast and cable industry for the first time, and having put in place a legislation that has paved the way for Prasar Bharati in its current status of an autonomous organization managing the affairs of Doordarshan and All India Radio.
Announcing the formation of Prasar Bharati as an autonomous organization, Reddy had then said in the late 1990s that Prasar Bharati was modeled on the British Broadcasting Corporation. Though his dream of seeing Prasar Bharati as another BBC may not have been fulfilled fully, Reddy has got another chance to really free India’s pubcaster from the financial and other bondage that keeps its bonded to the government of the day.
This government also witnesses a fairly good representation from the media and entertainment industry. There is IT and telecom minister Dayanidhi Maran, son of late Murosali Maran and a scion of the family that controls the Sun TV group as also the Sumangli group of publications. Along with I&B minister Reddy, Maran may play a big role in shaping the future of India’s IT, telecom and broadcast industries. Though, a full convergence is ruled out immediately.
Then there is film star Sunil Dutt Union minister for youth affairs and sports and South Indian producer-director Dasari Narayan Rao who is minister of state for coal and mines. The latter is more known for the family dramas in Hindi and South Indian languages of the 1970s and early 1980s.
Meanwhile, a draft of the common minimum programme of the present coalition government that indiantelevision.com happened to see was silent on the media sector, though there were some passing reference to the IT industry and the need to give a fillip to it.
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.
