Ashok Pradhan is MoS for Telecom & IT

Ashok Pradhan took charge as the Minister of State for Telecommunications and Information Technology on Monday.

Pradhan, who was earlier minister of state for human resource development, met Union Telecom Minister Arun Shourie, telecom secretary Vinod Vaish and senior officials of various public sector telecom units after assuming charge.

"We discussed a number of policy issues. There are in all 20 such issues including mergers and acquisitions, foreign direct investment, future of Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd, et cetera. On each matter, the pros and cons have to be considered so that within a fortnight we can get these issues behind us," Shourie said emerging from the meeting.