Telecom Lead India: India has got two young ministers — Manish Tewari and Kruparani Killi — to steer head two important ministries – IT & Telecom and Information & Broadcasting.
Both of them have tremendous jobs to complete. Kruparani Killi will get guidance from veteran minister Kapil Sibal. But Manish Tewari has independent charges.
Will the new I&B minister Manish Tewari switch off the analogue signal, ending TV viewing of those who have not installed STBs on October 31?
The broadcasting industry is unlikely to achieve 100 percent digitization in four metros in two days, though the UPA government is trying hard to achieve the target.
Switching off TV access will be the first major task for the young I&B minister from Punjab. He has got independent charge as the minister is capable of delivering his job.
Last week, TelecomLead.com reported that four metro cities – Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata – have achieved 90 percent digitization considering both DTH and Cable homes.
Daily installation of DTH connections in 4 metro cities has gone up to 8000 Boxes per day from an average of about 2000 Boxes a few weeks back. This is primarily due to India’s Broadcast Digitization drive.
After taking over on Monday, Manish Tewari said that he would take forward the policies of the UPA Government taken recently in the Films, Information and Broadcasting Sectors.
The minister reiterated that all efforts would be taken to highlight the policies and program of the Central Government.
Regarding the digitization process, the minister said that the ministry had put in place a roadmap for achieving the target of switching over from analogue to digital. The ministry had taken painstaking efforts to involve the key stakeholders associated with the digitization initiative. The minister further mentioned that he was confident that the targets would be met by the deadline stipulated.
Meanwhile, Kruparani Killi has taken over as the new minster of State for Communications and Information Technology.
On joining office, she was received by J Satyanarayana, secretary, Dept. of Electronics & IT (DeitY).
The telecom department will be steering 2G spectrum auction in the next few months. Also, there will be debate on spectrum pricing and viability of telecom sector in coming years.
editor@telecomlead.com
