News Analysis India

Tag: Ashwini Vaishnaw

  • Reports of snooping on Indians aimed at maligning Indian democracy: IT and Communications Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: IT and Communications Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on Monday dismissed media reports on the use of Pegasus software to snoop on Indians, saying the allegations levelled just ahead of the Monsoon session of Parliament are aimed at maligning Indian democracy.

    In a suo motu statement in Lok Sabha, Vaishnaw said that with several checks and balances being in place, “any sort of illegal surveillance” by unauthorised persons is not possible in India.

    The statement assumes significance in the backdrop opposition parties creating a ruckus over the issue in both the Houses of Parliament on the first day of the Monsoon session.

    The minister made this statement in response to media reports that spyware Pegasus was being used to conduct surveillance on several Indians, including political leaders, government officials and journalists.

    “A highly sensational story was published by a web portal yesterday night. The press report appeared a day before the Monsoon session of the Parliament.”

    “This cannot be a coincidence. In the past similar claims were made regarding the use of Pegasus on WhatsApp. Those reports have no factual basis and were categorically denied by all parties. The press report of July 18, 2021 also appeared to be an attempt to malign the Indian democracy and a well-established institution,” the minister said.

    More than 300 verified mobile phone numbers, including of two serving ministers, over 40 journalists, three opposition leaders and one sitting judge besides scores of business persons and activists in India could have been targeted for hacking through an Israeli spyware sold only to government agencies, an international media consortium reported on Sunday.

    The government, however, had dismissed allegations of any kind of surveillance on its part on specific people, saying it “has no concrete basis or truth associated with it whatsoever”.

  • Union ministers taking charge after Cabinet reshuffle vow to fulfil PM Modi’s vision for country

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: Several ministers, who took charge after a major Cabinet reshuffle, on Thursday hailed Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his leadership and vowed to realise his vision for the country.

    Newly appointed Union ministers and those elevated in the Cabinet reshuffle, including Ashwini Vaishnaw, Anurag Thakur and Mansukh Mandaviya, took charge of their respective ministries on Thursday.

    Bureaucrat-entrepreneur-turned-politician Vaishnaw, took charge as the country’s new railway minister, while Thakur who was elevated as Information and Broadcasting Minister also assumed office. Vaishnaw also holds two other important portfolios of Communications and Electronics, and Information Technology.

    “I thank the honourable prime minister for the great opportunity he has given me to serve the nation. Telecommunications, IT and Railways. There are lots of synergies in the three and I will be working to ensure that his vision is implemented,” Vaishnaw told reporters.

    “Excellent work has been done in the railways over the past 67 years. I am here to take the vision of Prime Minister Narendra Modi forward,” he said while taking charge.

    Interacting with reporters after assuming charge as the Information and Broadcasting Minister, Thakur said that Prime Minister Modi has given him a huge responsibility and he will make best efforts to fulfil it.

    He said reaching out to the masses through the Information and Broadcasting Ministry will be his main area of focus. “Modi ji has done fantastic work in the last seven years. My endeavour will be to meet his expectations, reach out to maximum people and take the legacy of my predecessors forward,” Thakur said.

    Late last night, Jyotiraditya Scindia, who was sworn in as a Cabinet minister, thanked Prime Minister Modi, BJP chief JP Nadda and the party leadership for entrusting him with the responsibility to serve as Civil Aviation Minister. “Looking forward to working under the guidance and vision of the PM to build a strong aviation sector for Aatmanirbhar Bharat!” Scindia tweeted.

    आपकी आत्मीय शुभकामनाओं के लिए ह्रदय से धन्यवाद।देश के यशस्वी प्रधानमंत्री श्री @narendramodi जी के कुशल नेतृत्व में, मैं आप सभी की अपेक्षाओं पर खरा उतरने का पूरा प्रयास करूंगा। https://t.co/4Wwa6um6xJ
    — Jyotiraditya M. Scindia (@JM_Scindia) July 8, 2021

    Bhupender Yadav, who assumed charge of the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change and as the Labour Minister, said, “I am grateful to the prime minister. I have already taken charge as labour minister. Now I take charge as environment minister. I will put my best foot forward to fulfil the responsibility given to me by the PM and the confidence he has shown in me.”

    Mansukh Mandaviya, who took charge as the country’s new health and family welfare minister, said he is committed to realizing Prime Minister Modi’s dream of a healthy India. John Barla, who took charge as the Minister of State for Minority Affairs, thanked Prime Minister Modi for entrusting him with this assignment and said he would make all efforts to fulfil his responsibilities.

    Subhas Sarkar, who took charge as the new Minister of State for Education, expressed his commitment to devote himself to fulfil the vision of the prime minister.

    Bureaucrat-turned politician Raj Kumar Singh, who assumed charge as the Minister of Power and New and Renewable Energy, expressed gratitude to Modi for giving him the responsibility, and said the prime minister has shown great confidence and “we will live up to that”.

    In his brief interaction with the media after assuming charge, Singh said, “We have achieved targets of electrification set by the prime minister well before the schedule and will strive to ensure that the benefits of power and energy sector reach the common man.

    In a major Union Cabinet makeover, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday dropped 12 ministers including Health Minister Harsh Vardhan, IT and Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad and Information and Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javadekar and brought Sarbananda Sonowal, Narayan Rane and Scindia and 33 other new members to his government.

    Apart from 15 Cabinet ministers, 28 Ministers of State, comprising new faces and those elevated, were sworn in at a ceremony which was held in the Darbar Hall of the Rashtrapati Bhavan.

  • Anurag Thakur takes charges as I&B Minister; Ashwini Vaishnaw as Minister of Railways

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: Anurag Thakur and Ashwini Vaishnaw on Thursday took charge as the Minister of Information and Broadcasting and Minister of Railways respectively.

    Speaking to reporters after assuming charge, Anurag Thakur said Prime Minister Narendra Modi has done a great job in reaching out to people in the last seven years through this ministry, and that he would like to take the legacy forward.

    Thakur said he would like to reach out to people through the ministry.

    “I will make every possible effort to carry out the responsibility bestowed upon me by the prime minister,” he said.

    A former IAS officer of the 1994-batch, Ashwini Vaishnaw has handled important responsibilities for over 15 years and was particularly known for his contribution to the public-private partnership (PPP) framework in infrastructure, something that will help him in the rail sector.

    He has also held leadership roles across major global companies such as General Electric and Siemens.

    Vaishnaw has done his MBA from the Wharton School, Pennsylvania University, and M.Tech from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kanpur.

    He will also hold two other important portfolios of Communications and Electronics and Information Technology.

    “Excellent work has been done in the Railways over the past 67 years. I am here to take the vision of Prime Minister Narendra Modi forward,” Vaishnaw said while taking the charge.

    The newly appointed minister later took to Twitter to express his gratitude to the PM.

    “Took charge as Cabinet Minister of Railways today. Once again from the core of my heart, I extend my gratitude to Hon’ble PM @narendramodi ji for entrusting me this responsibility,” he said.

  • Ashwini Vaishnaw gets into Narendra Modi’s Cabinet

    By PTI
    BHUBANESWAR: Bureaucrat-entrepreneur-turned-politician Ashwini Vaishnaw’s entry in the Union cabinet comes two years after he surprised all in Odisha’s political circles when he was elected to the Upper House of Parliament as a BJP candidate despite the saffron party lacking the required numbers to send a member to Rajya Sabha.

    The 51-year-old BJP leader Vaishnaw, born in Rajasthan’s Jodhpur, is a suave and former Odisha cadre IAS officer from the 1994 batch.

    He managed to wrangle support from the ruling BJD president and Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik despite being in the rival camp.

    This happened in spite of criticism and objections by many within the ruling BJD.

    Allegations were traded that the BJD supremo succumbed to Narendra Modi-Amit Shah’s pressure in supporting Vaishnaw.

    He was inducted into the saffron party barely six days ahead of the Rajya Sabha elections on June 28, 2019.

    Just about two years later he has landed himself a job in the country’s cabinet ahed of veteran saffron leaders from Odisha.

    His batch-mate and Lok Sabha member from Bhubaneswar, Aparajita Sarangi, who won the 2019 elections after defeating the BJD candidate and former Mumbai police commissioner Arup Patnaik, was among the front runners in the race for a ministry.

    During his stint as an IAS officer, Vaishnaw worked as the District Magistrate-cum Collector of Balasore and Cuttack districts.

    His bureaucratic acumen, in fact, came to the fore when the super cyclone hit Odisha in 1999 killing at least 10,000 people.

    As collector of the coastal Balasore district, Vaishnaw collected information on the cyclone from a US Navy website and sent reports to the chief secretary at regular intervals.

    His information helped the state government to take advanced measures in order to save lives.

    Vaishnaw worked in Odisha till 2003, before being appointed as deputy secretary in the office of former Prime Minister A B Vajpayee.

    He was later appointed as Vajpayee’s private secretary after the NDA lost the election in 2004.

    A product of IIT, Vaishnaw, quit government service in 2008 and went to Wharton University in USA to pursue an MBA.

    On his return, after working for top firms, he set up his own automotive components manufacturing units in Gujarat.

    Interestingly, in April, Vaishnaw was nominated as a member of the Press Council of India, for three years.