Shourie Replaces Mahajan

Arun Shourie has taken over as the new minister of Communications and IT from Pramod Mahajan. Shourie, besides disinvestment, has also been assigned additional responsibility of ministry of Industry. Shourie has inherited a ministry which got involved in ironing out the sharp acrimony between the cellular and the limited mobility service providers over interconnect issue. He made his intentions clear that he wanted competition in the telecom sector, but added that intense rivalries must not hurt corporate balance sheets. "There must be competition. At the same time there must not be predatory practices. India is large enough so there's room for everybody," Arun Shourie, told reporters. "No steps should be taken to block technology," he added. 

Born in Jalandhar, Punjab, 61-year old Shourie had exposed major scandals and government corruption, including what is known as "India’s Watergate", during his journalistic days as the editor of Indian Express. He received his doctorate in economics from Syracuse University in Syracuse, New York, and served as an economist with the World Bank between 1967 and 1978. Shourie also worked from 1972 to 1974 as a consultant to the Indian Planning Commission, then the arena of major controversies within the government, and made his first foray into journalism by writing several critical articles on economic policy. He was appointed executive editor of the Indian Express on January 1, 1979. A short stint as the executive editor of the Times of India in 1986, ended with Shourie being back in the Indian Express Group in 1987.

Shourie is learnt to have devoted his time in writing books and regular columns, which appeared in different languages in 30 newspapers across India. His writings have gained him a vast following, as well as many enemies, across the country. He has earned many national and international awards, including the World Press Review’s International Editor of the Year and The Freedom to Publish Award of the Indian Federation of Publishers. Shourie joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in 1998 and has been a minister of state in the BJP-led coalition government since November 1998.

(CNS)