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There's A New IT Ministry And It's Looking At Everyone's Aadhaar Cards

Ravi Shankar Prasad gets a big mandate
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The government has carved out a new ministry, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, which will oversee among other functions the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), responsible for issuing Aadhaar numbers to Indians.

The new IT ministry, which will be led by Ravi Shankar Prasad, will also look at all existing IT laws, IT-enabled services, electronics, IT education, and digital assistance to the government and promote e-governance, and e-commerce.

The government carved out the new ministry by splitting the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MoC&IT) into two ministries – the new IT ministry, and a Ministry of Communications. The latter, which is headed by Manoj Sinha, will have two departments—Department of Telecommunications and Department of Posts.

A senior government official told ET, "This flows out of the decision during the Cabinet reshuffle wherein two Ministers came to be made in-charge of different departments in the same ministry. Ravi Shankar Prasad will be now be the full-time Minister in charge of two ministries - Law and the new Ministry of Electronics and IT."

In the recent cabinet reshuffle, Prasad was removed from the charge of ministry of communications, but retained the department of electronics and IT, and was given additional charge of the Ministry of Law and Justice. Manoj Sinha was made the new telecom minster, and responsible for telecom-related matters such as spectrum auctions.

With PTI inputs

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This article exists as part of the online archive for HuffPost India, which closed in 2020. Some features are no longer enabled. If you have questions or concerns about this article, please contact indiasupport@huffpost.com.