Well, the Indian PM reshuffled his council of ministers on Wednesday and the media and telecoms industries have new Ministers at relevant ministries of Information and Broadcasting, Electronics & IT, and Communications. To be specific, there are four ministers now to contend with, including those with Cabinet rank and their juniors.

Former junior Finance Minister Anurag Singh Thakur has been elevated as a full-fledged cabinet-rank Minister and will helm the ministries of Information and Broadcasting, and Youth Affairs & Sports.

This actually could turn out to be a good move for TV sports channels that now can take their problems of sports broadcasting (increased fee for telecasting live sports events, for example) and broadcasting, in general, to a single authority for faster resolution of issues.

Thakur, who’s also active in one of the richest sporting bodies, the Indian cricket board, has a good understanding of sports, sports broadcasting and thorny issues related to the sector.

An Indian Institute of Technology grad Ashwini Vaishnaw

takes over as Minister of Communications, Electronics & Information Technology, and the Railways.

Said to be a low-profile and quiet person, Vaishnaw could be what the doctor ordered at the presently high-profile Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (Meity), which seems to be at war with the big American tech companies, including Twitter, with daily run-ins.

Vaishnaw will be assisted by two junior ministers — tech entrepreneur-turned-politician Rajeev Chandrasekhar at Meity and Devusinh Chauhan at the Communications Ministry where Department of Telecoms is overseeing several important projects, including India’s transition to 5G tech, spectrum allocations and public broadband project BharatNet that aims to close the digital divide between the haves and have-nots, but is way behind scheduled target achievement.

PM Modi, keeping the traditions alive, has retained the Space Ministry portfolio, which oversees Department of Space and India’s space agency ISRO.

Earlier, Reuters reported from New Delhi that after weeks of speculation over a Cabinet reshuffle, Prime Minister Narendra Modi rearranged his cabinet on Wednesday as many new faces were included in the Union Cabinet where women leaders from the governing NDA as well as marginalised communities found a seat in the cabinet.

A total of 43 leaders took oath yesterday in the Union Cabinet expansion. Among the many ministers were Pashupati Kumar Paras, Jyotiraditya Scindia, Bhupender Yadav, Shobha Karandlaje, Anupriya Patel, Meenakshi Lekhi, Ajay Bhatt and Anurag Thakur.

PM Modi also dismissed 12 cabinet members, including the health, MIB and IT ministers to try to reinvigorate his government after fierce criticism of its handling of the coronavirus pandemic and the management of the new digital regulations.

The PM is expected to retain his core team at the foreign, finance, home and defence departments even though the economy is in a deep recession and there are widespread concerns that a surge in COVID-19 infections will stall the recovery.

Health Minister Harsh Vardhan, who was the face of the government’s efforts to fight COVID-19, was asked to step down along with his deputy.

Information and Technology and Telecoms Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, who was leading the government’s efforts to persuade the US social media giants to comply with the laws of the country, also lost his job in the reshuffle.

No reasons were provided for the dismissal, though an industry source familiar with the thinking of Facebook, WhatsApp and Twitter  expected them to welcome the change at the ministry.

“A reset always helps,” said the source. “It so far appeared there was a lack of conversation.”

Modi also dropped Information and Broadcasting minister Prakash Javadekar, who was also the government’s spokesperson.