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Will make telecom tariffs more affordable: Scindia

Sandeep Joshi

“But there will be no compromise on technology front”

— Photo: V. Sudershan

JOINT EFFORT: Newly-appointed Minister of State for Communications and Information Technology Jyotiraditya Scindia with his senior A. Raja, prior to assuming office, in New Delhi on Wednesday.

NEW DELHI: Newly-appointed Minister of State for Communications and Information Technology Jyotiraditya Scindia on Wednesday said he would strive to make telecom tariffs more affordable, but without compromising on the technology front.

The Minister said he would also work for improving the efficiency of the Department of Posts (DoP) and help States use information technology to their advantage.

Talking to reporters after assuming office, Mr. Scindia said that in India, the second largest mobile market in the world, telecom tariffs were the cheapest. But still efforts could be made to further reduce them. “We will also ensure that best telecom technologies are introduced for the benefit of the growing economy and consumers.”

More personal touch

On the functioning of the DoP, he said the focus would be on making efficient use of its resources and giving more personal touch to the services offered.

“Post offices should become a window of the world for the common man. We will strive to make them more user-friendly, and also efficiently use their resources to make available to people various products and services being offered by the government, particularly in the rural hinterland.”

On information technology growth, he said the need was to transform India from being a purely back-office and software programming destination to a product nation because “that is where ‘Intellectual Property’ lies.”

Mr. Scindia said: “We need to move up the value chain and focus on hardware as well. We need to set up semi-conductor and fabrication units to give a boost to the manufacturing and technology sectors.”

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