ALL THE PM’s MEN: The newly sworn in ministers with the PM and President at Rashtrapati Bhawan

One should bear in mind that I am the Telecom Minister; Not A Minister for BSNL or MTNL

“BETTER TIES WITH INDUSTRY WILL ENSURE GOOD SERVICES”

In the Railways, Manoj Sinha is known as a “doer”. Now, as the new minister of state (independent charge) for communications, Sinha hopes to usher in better services for consumers, even as he expects the industry to invest more in the sector. Excerpts from an interview:

Q: Resolving the call drop problem is going to be your top priority, right? So will we see an improvement in 4-5 months?

A: I have not said so. The day I took charge of the ministry, journalists asked me this question. I conceded that call drop is a problem before us. I said that in the days to come, probably in the next 4-5 months, there’ll be a qualitative improvement in this regard. This is TRAI’s mandate. As the communications minister, I understand that it’s my responsibility that the people get good services as consumers. Along with TRAI, we would definitely take measures in this regard.

Q: By September end, we will have the biggest telecom spectrum auction ever. The total reserve price for spectrum will be around Rs 5.66 lakh crore. Is it a challenge or an opportunity?