New Delhi, May 11 : C. P. Joshi has been given additional charge of the railway ministry, while Kapil Sibal has got the additional charge of the law and justice ministry, a Rashtrapati Bhavan communique said Saturday.

Pawan Kuamr Bansal and Ashwani Kumar had resigned from the respective posts Friday night. President Pranab Mukherjee has accepted the resignations, the communique added.

Joshi is presently the surface transport minister and had earlier held the additional charge of railway ministry when Mukul Roy quit after Trinamool Congress left the UPA- II government.

Communications & IT Minister Kapil Sibal met representatives from various countries tech-savvy countries as part of the government's efforts to India as an investment hub for electronics manufacturing.

Mr. Sibal met ambassadors and heads of chambers of commerce from countries like Germany, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, the US and UK.

Following the meeting, Mr. Sibal said that the representatives had raised some points, which were successfully clarified during the meeting.

New Delhi, April 18 : IT and telecommunications minister Kapil Sibal Thursday reiterated that the government doesn't want to control social media but stressed the need for some regulations.

Sibal, who has been labelled in some sections of media as an enemy of social media, said social media is the most powerful tool but can also be very dangerous.

"It is not about control but how to have some regulations. We don't want to control the social media," said Sibal on the sidelines of the launch of enewspaper of India.

India's union communications and information technology minister, Kapil Sibal has said that the internet is an important medium that allows people to be voice their opinions.

Sibal has said that the internet tolls must be used for the empowerment of the people around the world and not for creating disruptions.  He said that the internet is the biggest transformative and important forum for the people. It added that it is necessary for India and provides a chance for the people to express themselves.

India's telecom Minister Kapil Sibal has said that the internet tolls must be used for the empowerment of the people around the world and not for creating disruptions.

While speaking at the Google's Big Tent Activate Summit, he said that the internet has emerged as a powerful medium and it is difficult to govern the people on the internet and thus the rules will have to be self-imposed. He added that the internet should be sued for talking on a daily basis but there should be self-imposed rules for the use of this powerful medium.

New Delhi, Mar 7 : Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal on Thursday expressed hope that free roaming services will start before October this year.

"Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has issued consultation paper in this regard. So when Trai''s recommendations come and after that, we will try to start free roaming before October," Sibal told reporters on the sidelines of the launch of National Internet Registry (NIR) here.

Sibal launched the NIR, which will reduce the cost of processing IP addresses.

New Delhi, Mar 6 : Communications and IT Minister Kapil Sibal has launched the Electronics Project Proposal System (e-PPS), developed by the Department of Electronics and Information Technology, through the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC).

Sibal held a round table discussion with Academia, Industry and R&D organizations, here yesterday. The round table was held in order to have broad consensus and opinion on the proposed ICT&E R&D and Innovation Framework prepared by DeitY. The e-PPS system will initially operate on a pilot basis.

New Delhi, Feb 13 : Communication and Information Technology Minister Kapil Sibal on Wednesday said that India and Japan can partner using their expertise in the fields of software and hardware respectively to explore new markets.

Stressing on the needs of dedicated teams between the two countries, Sibal said that his office is intended to have a nodal officer to look after the issues between both the countries, and expressed hope that Japan could also appoint such an officer, while meeting with Toshimitsu Motegi, the visiting Japanese Minister for Economy, Trade and Industry.

The Telecom & Information Technology (IT) ministry has sought changes in the import duty structure for import of telecom & IT components in order to provide a boost to domestic manufacturing of these components, Kapil Sibal has revealed.

Telecom & IT minister Kapil Sibal said that zero duty on imports of IT components makes it cheaper to import these components from foreign countries rather than manufacturing them in the country.

New Delhi, Jan 17 : Union Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal on Thursday said the video telephony service launched today by Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL) would help expand its business across the country.

Terming it as a `revolutionary step', Sibal said the aim of the service is to ensure that everyone can use it at an affordable price.

"This service (video telephony service) will expand business of Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) and MTNL. The landline space, which was being occupied by mobile phones, will get reduced. The business plan should be such that the common man can pay that amount," said Sibal.

New Delhi, Jan 7 : Union Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal said that auction for unsold spectrum bands would begin soon at a reduced price of 30 percent from the previous auction after the empowered group of ministers (EGoM) meets to discuss a roadmap for spectrum that remained unsold.

Talking to reporters here on Monday, Sibal said: “The EGoM met this morning and took some vital decisions, the first was that the auction for the 1800 Mega Hertz band in four circles in which bids were not received in November 2012 will be put up for auction, the reserve price will be 30 percent lower than the reserve price that was fixed at that time.”

The Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM) on telecom, which is headed by finance minister P Chidambaram, has recommended that the base price of November auction for the 800 MHz spectrum used in CDMA services should be reduced by 30 per cent or 50 per cent for auctions this year.

Government officials have said that the union cabinet is expected to take a decision on the CDMA spectrum price soon and all the spectrum auctions will begin on 11 March this year.

Tough times for the telecommunications industry are over, and the Government's futuristic policy will provide a boost to the growth of the sector by addressing investors' concerns, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh claimed.

The Indian telecommunications industry suffered troubles due to regulatory uncertainty, such as indecision on spectrum prices, but the government recently laid down rules for determining spectrum prices in the future.

The empowered group of ministers (EGoM) on Friday slashed the reserve price for 2G spectrum auction by 30 per cent in the 1800 MHz band, in order to receive more bids for the next auction.

The EGoM slashed the reserve price for the spectrum in four key circles, viz. Delhi, Mumbai, Rajasthan and Karnataka, where no company had placed bids due to high reserve price.

Inder Kumar Gujral, India's former prime minister who breathed his last breath on Friday, was cremated today with full state honour near Smriti Sthal in New Delhi.

Mr. Gujral died of lung infection in a Gurgaon hospital. He had been on dialysis for more than a year. He passed away just four days ahead of his 93rd birth anniversary.

The 2G spectrum auction could generate only Rs 9,407.64 crore in revenue for the government, considerably down from the government's target of Rs 40,000 crore.

Idea and Videocon bagged spectrum in seven telecom circles, Telenor in six telecom circles, while each of Airtel and Vodafone could won spectrum only in one circle. For the six circles, Telenor agreed to pay a total of Rs 4,018 crore. A third of the total amount of money will have to be paid up-front, and the remaining will have to be paid in 10 equal installments from 2015 to 2024.

Global cooperation is necessary to ensure cyber security as no nation can fight cyber crime in isolation, Communications & IT Minister Kapil Sibal said.

Sibal, who is in Baku, Ajerbaijan, to attend a High Level Ministerial Meeting at the Internet Governance Forum, stressed that cooperation is must among key players, industry, international bodies and governments to secure cyberspace.

An Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM) on Thursday delayed a decision on the Telecom Commission's recommendation on refarming (reallocating) of spectrum held by incumbent operators.

The Telecom Commission had recommended that GSM-based telecom operators should be asked to pay for spectrum they hold beyond 4.4 MHz at the auction-determined price, while CDMA operators should pay for holdings airwaves beyond 2.5 MHz.

Union Human Resource Minister Kapil Sibal has asked the Petroleum Ministry to consider providing subsidised cooking gas (LPG) cylinders for Mid-Day Meal Scheme for at least the current financial year.

Mr. Sibal said that the Petroleum Ministry's decision to put a cap of six on the number of subsidised LPG cylinders per year would put a massive financial burden on the education department as they would have purchase additional LPG cylinders at market rates.

The Association of Unified Telecom Service Providers of India (AUSPI) has written a letter to Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal, stating its opposition to the telecom department's plan to impose a one-time tax on operators for spectrum they hold.

The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has proposed that the government should charge for spectrum held by existing operators at the rates that new telecom operators will pay on airwaves that they will acquire in the auction scheduled for November this year.