He was not the typical politician who would follow
predecessors blindly. Perhaps that's why Shri Pramod Mahajan was chosen to be
India's first infotech minister. He converged the IT and telecom ministries,
and was counted among the IT industry's top well wishers.
His appointment to the Communications Ministry in 2001 came
under controversial circumstances. He had the arduous task of implementing the
controversial New Telecom Policy of 1999. During his tenure, the number of new
telephone connections enjoyed unprecedented growth and rentals fell by a large
amount. He accelerated the telecom revolution in rural India. He was also
instrumental in lifting the telecom ban on sensitive states like J&K and
North East India, and in bringing Internet Telephony to the country.
However, he was accused of favoring Reliance Infocomm unduly. Consequently he
lost his portfolio in 2003. Nevertheless, Shri Majajan's legacy is stamped all
over the today's Telecom scenario.
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