Modi cabinet 3.0: Ashwini Vaishnaw takes charge as Minister of Railways, I&B

Modi cabinet 3.0: Ashwini Vaishnaw took charge of the railway ministry as the Minister of Railways as well as of the I&B ministry on Tuesday morning. Vaishnaw had taken oath as part of the new Modi cabinet on Sunday. 

In the new cabinet, Ashwini Vaishnaw, apart from the Ministry of Railways, has been allotted two other charges – Minister of Information and Broadcasting, and Minister of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY). 

Vaishnaw, in the previous cabinet had the railways and electronics and IT ministries, which he retained and was given the additional charge of the Information and Broadcasting ministry.

The bureaucrat-turned-politician is an IIT-Kanpur alumni and is expected to build on the momentum he had gained in the previous government. His ministries are key to making India’s electronic and IT sectors self-reliant. 

One of the highlights of Vaishnaw’s previous stint was that mobile phone manufacturing in India crossed Rs 4.1 lakh crore, a 21-fold jump from the 2014-15 levels. India now meets 97 per cent of its total mobile phone demand locally. 

Vaishnaw would be expected to work on implementing the Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Act and give shape to the proposed Digital India Act, which would supersede the old IT Act. 

The MeitY, under his leadership would need to work on the draft Digital India legislation that would provide protection and prescribe regulatory approaches for new-age technologies like artificial intelligence. 

He would also be tasked with realising India’s semiconductor manufacturing ambitions, and take on giants like the US and China.