One of the major hopes about the new ministry has been with respect to the infotech sector. Within days of taking charge, the new union government has put forward a plan to the prime minister’s office (PMO) to get all infotech related sectors including communications, information and broadcasting (I&B) and science and technology under one head of the
information technology ministry with this ministry formulating policies for the entire sector. The plan awaits the approval of the union cabinet and the NDA(Dational Democratic Alliance).

At present communications, I&B and science and technology are parts of different ministries. I&B is in charge of print and electronic media, communications covers telecom while science and technology handles the related areas apart from those in the ambit of the other ministries.

The new infotech ministry will also look at Internet policy, cable and telecom and electronics. The new ministry will also tackle issues relating to the administration and governing of Internet Service Providers and review and implement pending issues suggested by special task forces in recent months. Although there are common areas with the telecom department and ministry of I&B, the ministry will not duplicate the work of these bodies.
It will help develop world class software products and brands and set out the necessary physical, institutional and regulatory infrastructure. It will aim at developing a strategy for higher computer usage in the home sector and other sectors of the economy like agriculture. The ministry will outline measures to promote the Internet in India and also suggest measures to catalyse the growth of exports with the extensive use of e-commerce and electronic data interchange.

The ministry may opt for the American or Finnish model for the Internet usage with free local calls, no restrictions on licensing and optimal usage of the underutilised fibre optic capacity.

One of the reasons for delay in allocating the newly announced infotech portfolio is due to the fact that the IT ministry is to place a draft note before the cabinet with inputs from the three departments.