Arun Jaitley takes charge as I&B minister

New Delhi, Nov 10 (IANS) Newly appointed Information and Broadcasting (I&B) Minister Arun Jaitley on Monday assumed charge of the office.

Jaitley, who also holds the finance portfolio, was given the charge of the information and broadcasting ministry in a cabinet reshuffle that took place Sunday.

He took over from Prakash Javadekar, who now remains the minister of state (independent charge) for environment, forest and climate change ministry.

Speaking after assuming charge, Jaitley said: “Earlier too, I have remained the information and broadcasting minister, but then print media was more and very little electronic media. But now radio, digital media have grown tremendously.”

“There was a time when most work of this ministry was done by Prasar Bharati and Doordarshan. But now we have to look at them as per the changes in information technology,” Jaitley added.

Along with Jaitley, Olympian shooter-turned-politician Rajyavardhan Rathore, who has been made the minister of state for information and broadcasting, also took charge.

I&B ministry is an important ministry that communicates with all other ministries, Jaitley said and added he would devote some time every day at I&B, apart from his responsibility as the finance minister.