Ashwini Vaishnaw replaces Prasad as New Telecom, IT minister

In Wednesday's cabinet expansion, Ashwini Vaishnaw got the charge of Ministries of IT, Telecom and Railways. A former IAS officer, the 50-year-old Rajya Sabha MP from Odisha received the charge after Ravi Shankar Prasad resigned from his post on Tuesday.

Ashwini Vaishnaw - The New IT and Telecom Minister

Vaishnaw has an MTech from IIT-Kanpur after pursuing BTech in electronics and communications. He also went to study management at Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, and joined the corporate sector after serving as a bureaucrat for 15 years.

As a government official, Vaishnaw handled important responsibilities. During this time, he also worked with the Vajpayee PMO. He was most well-known for his contribution to the public-private partnership (PPP) framework in infrastructure. Ashwini Vaishnaw was also pivotal in implementing ERP software at Goa Port.

After he turned to the corporate world, he first served as the managing director of GE Transportation. He also held the VP role at Siemens Locomotive, where he was incharge of the infrastructure strategy. In 2012, he finally quit the corporate world and headed into entrepreneurship. He set up two automotive components plants in Gujarat during this time. Ashwini Vaishnaw got a ticket to the Rajya Sabha in 2019 from Odisha.

A senior official said, "his work in the logistics sector while working for GE and Siemens and his forte in integrating IT with logistics and how to force-multiply was what has worked in his favour".

There are large-scale integration opportunities in IT and Railways. As such, Vaishnaw, who has experience in both, has received the charge, the person added. They said that he is a person who has hands-on experience in the field, which is what the PM was looking for.

Along with Ashwini Vaishnaw, Devusinh Chauhan has been elected as the Minister of State (MoS) for Communications. Chauhan replaces Sanjay Dhotre, who also held the IT and HRD.

A Turning Point for Telecom Sector

This shakeup comes at a turning point in India's telecom landscape. The 5G spectrum auction remains about half a year away, India's Spacecom policy is under discussion and more. The telecom sector is struggling with low ARPUs - Vodafone Idea even asked for help from the telecom department.

Ravi Shankar Prasad resigned in the midst of a bitter spat with Twitter, and the controversies around the new IT rules. Ashwini Vaishnaw inherits the spat, the controversies and the ailing telecom industry, along with the responsibility of supporting a telecom network 1.2 billion strong, arguably one of the largest railways in the world and an IT sector dreaming of becoming a trillion-dollar strong.