With the new government at the centre, the telecommunications and IT portfolio is going to be led by three-time Rajya Sabha member from Bihar, Ravi Shankar Prasad. He will succeed Kapil Sibal, who headed the ministry under the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government.

Earlier, in 1999, under the Atal Bihari Vajpayee led National Democratic Alliance government, Prasad was in-charge of Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Ministry of Coal and Mines and Ministry of Law and Justice.

During his early days in politics, Prasad was associated as a student leader with Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, the student arm of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). In 1973, he was elected as assistant general secretary of the Patna University Students’ Union. Prasad was named as a BJP’s chief spokesperson in 2007 and was appointed as the party’s general secretary in 2010. In 2012, he was nominated as the party’s deputy leader in the Rajya Sabha.

A few of the key policy issues to be addressed on priority basis by Prasad include a more liberal merger and acquisition policy, clarity regarding spectrum trading, sharing of national optical fibre network and full mobile number portability among others.