I&B Ministry
Venkaiah Naidu gets additional charge of MIB; Manoj Sinha bags Communications portfolio
NEW DELHI: M. Venkaiah Naidu is the new boss for India’s media and entertainment sector at Ministry of Information & Broadcasting (MIB) as the senior minister replacing Arun Jaitley who continues to be country’s finance minister.
Similarly, there’s a new Communications boss at the Capital’s Sanchar Bhawan that houses one part of the Ministry of Communications & Information Technology (MoCIT). Manoj Sinha will hold independent charge of Communications portfolio in the bifurcated MoCIT.
Earlier MoCIT minister Ravi Shankar Prasad retains control over IT & Electronics departments in MoCIT, while being given additional charge of Ministry of Law.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi affected a reshuffle of his Cabinet on July 5, 2016, bringing in new people as senior and junior ministers and re-jigging portfolios of some existing ministers. With the induction of the newcomers, the council of ministers has been expanded to 78 members.
Both Naidu and Sharma, at the helm of crucial ministries, have additional responsibilities too.
While Naidu also holds charge at Ministry of Urban Development Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation, Sharma too is a junior minister at Ministry of Railways.
Naidu will be accompanied at MIB by Olympics medallist-turned-politician Rajyavardhan Singh RathoreRajyavardhan Singh Rathore, who continues as the junior minister.
It remains to be seen how quickly the new ministers grasp complex issues such as digitisation, broadcast licences, content regulations, Net Neutrality, spectrum auctioning, while keeping pace with newer technologies being embraced by India’s media & entertainment and communications sectors.
Political observers of India’s complicated polity were divided in their opinion on whether the Cabinet reshuffle reflected talents been rewarded or people given ministerial berths with an eye on some up and coming State-level elections that are crucial for the nationalist BJP, which leads the government in New Delhi.
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.
