MUMBAI: A few months into the Narendra Modi government and Prakash Javadekar taking charge as the Minister of State (independent charge) of the Information and Broadcasting Ministry, a reshuffle has now put Arun Jaitley in charge of the department, in addition to Finance and Corporate Affairs with the MoS charge being given to Col Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore.

While Jaitley is someone who has knowledge of the ministry, Rathore is yet to understand the nitty-gritty of it. News Broadcasters Association (NBA) president Rajat Sharma is optimistic about Jaitley handling the portfolio. “NBA welcomes the appointment of Arun Jaitley as I&B Minister. He has a great understanding of the challenges faced and ahead of the broadcasters and I hope that he will play a proactive role in resolving the issues,” he says.

Jaitley has been an advisor to broadcasters in the past and is aware of issues they face such as carriage fees, ad cap, digitisation etc. “The NBA delegation will be meeting Mr Jaitley soon to discuss industry problems,” he adds.

Sharma had earlier mentioned while speaking at indiantelevision.com’s 7th Indian News Television Summit that the NBA would be meeting the Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the I&B Minister Prakash Javadekar and the Home Minister Rajnath Singh to place before them, concerns of the news television industry.

Sharma says that it feels good to have ‘industry’s friend’ as a minister of the department.