On assuming the charge, Scindia discussed about the present foreign trade, Special Economic Zones, issues relating to the World Trade Organisation and industrial scenario, with the Commerce Secretary, G.K. Pillai and Secretary, Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP), Ajai Shankar.

While interacting with the media persons, Scindia stated that the main thrust area is manufacturing sector and he will look into the same for pushing manufacturing growth in the coming months.

He also explained about the present scenario of the Special Economic Zones.

He added that the "mix of youth and experience" in the new council of ministers would help the government perform better than its previous term.

"Look at the ministers. A lot of new energy and innovative thinking is there," said Scindia.

Regarding Rahul Gandhi's decision not to join the cabinet, he said: "We must respect his decision. His decision to work for strengthening the party at the ground level is very important."

After innumerable rounds of intense discussions over the past few days, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's new government was finally unveiled today. Besides the 19 ministers who were inducted last Friday, the Prime Minister and Congress president Sonia Gandhi finalised an additional list of 14 ministers, seven ministers of state with independent charge and 38 ministers of state, who will be sworn in tomorrow morning at the Rashtrapati Bhavan's Ashoka Hall.

Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi personally called up each of them to inform them about their inclusion in the ministry.

The magnum 79-member strong council of ministers of the new UPA government includes 19 members from the allies- seven each from the DMK and the Trinamul Congress, three from the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and one each from the National Conference and the Muslim League. The portfolios will be announced tomorrow.<center>
Image Source: TOI</center>

While the PM and Sonia Gandhi had little say in the selection of the ministers from outside their own party, the duo had to ensure that the list of Congress nominees gave adequate representation to different castes and regions, while keeping a firm eye on competence and accountability. Despite the painstaking exercise undertaken by them, which took several days to complete, there have been several surprise inclusions and exclusions resulting in rumblings in the Congress.<center>
Image Source: Indian Express</center>

Three Cabinet rank ministers and one minister of state represent Karnataka, which notched up a poor tally of six seats in the recent Lok Sabha elections. While former Chief Minister SM Krishna and Veerappa Moily were inducted last week, senior Dalit leader Mallikarjun Kharge was given a ministerial berth while fellow Kannidiga KH Muniyappa was named junior minister today.

Similarly, the hill state of Himachal Pradesh, where the Congress managed to win only one seat, has bagged two Cabinet berths for Anand Sharma and former Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh. In addition to Ambika Soni, Punjab's Preneet Kaur was made a junior minister today while Pawan Kumar Bansal, Chandigarh MP and a minister of state in the outgoing government, was upgraded to Cabinet rank.

In a sharp contrast, Uttar Pradesh, where the Congress outdid itself by winning 21 seats, has no representation in the Cabinet. Salman Khursheed and Sriprakash Jaiswal have made the grade as ministers of state with independent charge while Jitin Prasada, RPN Singh and Pradeep Jain are only ministers of state. The absence of a Muslim face from the Hindi heartland in the Cabinet is particularly glaring, especially since the minorities had shown a marked preference for the Congress in these states in the recent elections. While Khursheed is the only Muslim face from UP, the only other Muslim from the Congress in the council of ministers is Ghulam Nabi Azad.

For a Prime Minister who puts so many premiums on the good governance, former Maharashtra chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh's appointment as a Cabinet minister has raised many eyebrows. Deshmukh was asked to step down as CM last year after the 26/11-terror attack in Mumbai because of his poor handling of the situation. The only explanation offered for Deshmukh's speedy rehabilitation, when he is not even a member of the either House of Parliament, is that the Congress wants a Maratha leader at the Centre to counter NCP chief Sharad Pawar. Also, Assembly elections are due in Maharashtra later this year. Women have found adequate representation in the new UPA dispensation. While Ambika Soni, Meira Kumar and Mamta Bannerjee were among the 19 ministers who were sworn last Friday, today's list includes Selja, who has been promoted as a Cabinet minister, Krishna Tirath (Minister of state with independent charge), D. Purandeshwari, Panabaka Lakshmi and Perneet Kaur have been named junior ministers.

While experienced hands have been given their due, there are a large number of new and young faces in the council of ministers. Among the young Turks, Jitin Prasada and Jyotiradiya Scindia have come back for a second stint as junior ministers while Sachin Pilot, RPN Singh as well as Bharatsinh Solanki and Tusharbhai Chaudhary are among the newcomers.

Although, it was being said no first timers would be given a ministerial berth, an exception has been made in the case of Shashi Tharoor, a former UN diplomat, who debuted as an MP in these elections.

A big omission in today's list is former law minister HR Bharadwaj.

The world missed the significance of our baby steps in democratizing the Congress's youth organizations. Everyone wrongly assumed young Indians were allergic to politics and change. But they are eager to be active agents of change.

The election results are scant evidence of the chord Rahul has struck with youth with his attempts to throw open political parties to the next generation. In the last few months, we held elections for our youth organizations in Gujarat, Uttarakhand and Punjab. The result was the new vigour seen in GenNext during the Lok Sabha elections -- they took up campaigning in big numbers and turned out in hordes to vote. They seem to have backed Congress with great enthusiasm.<center>
LONG-TERM VISION: (from left to right) Vijay Inder Singla, Sandeep Dikshit, Jitin Prasada, Sachin Pilot and Jyotiraditya Scindia </center>

It is the young who can -- and will -- change the country and the way it is run. The basic problem arises from the simplistic assumption that the young are averse to "dirty politics". The urban middle class may be cynical about politics but in the rural heartland there are 5.5 lakh panchayats and several lakh young men and women serving as panchs, sarpanchs and as members of zilla parishads. According to a rough estimate, 70% of these elected representatives are no older than 35.

Surely that is evidence enough to show that the young are interested in entering the system to change their village communities? If the urban young are apathetic about politics it is largely because of the system's penchant for political institutions, the closed-door functioning of political outfits and the special status given to politicians. These are all negatives factors and breed revulsion among ordinary people.

The philosophy and purpose of Rahul Gandhi's internal democratization of the NSUI and Youth Congress was opening them up to the common people. This has created a feeling within the new generation that there is a clean way of getting into politics and moving into leadership positions. At the moment, many young politicians belong to political families and the positions they get are passed down as legacies. There's nothing wrong with that but there should be equal opportunity for others too if they want it.

It is not a small change. It would open up politics to all, making it possible for ordinary people to compete with the privileged few. Some may try to discourage the change, but it will happen. Ours is a longterm vision but the results of this election are encouraging, particularly because we saw huge youth participation in our campaign and the voting
process.

I went to Mandsaur in Madhya Pradesh to contest the election. I was a first-timer in the big, challenging world of electoral politics. But the experience was phenomenal. Throughout the campaign, I would get scraps on my Orkut profile and phone calls from boys and girls who would introduce themselves as first-time voters who had cast their ballot in my favour. It was a very satisfying experience -- the flight of hope among those who possibly would not have taken to it with such gusto had they not seen change coming into the closed, 60-year-old world of politics.

Through Congress's philosophy of equality, India's young will change the way politics is perceived in this country. Politics and elections are seen as an ideological challenge, but young people see it as a management challenge. As the young enter politics, real issues will come to centrestage and the possibility of their own being able to participate in the process would cement their faith in the philosophy of equality, opportunity and change.

It will be a boon for society as it will undercut the school of political thought that promotes divisiveness. As we gain acceptability, there will be copycats. That would be good because they will be following our path.

But this may be hard for those whose politics is based on parochialism. Divisive politics marginalizes the youth it seeks to exclude. Youth participation in such parties will decline. Simply put, divisive ideology is antithetical to greater youth participation.

Barely four months after dropping its proposal to force TV channels to show only “authorized” feed during security emergencies, the government is now seeking to censor news portals and other websites, that too even at normal times.

Draft rules released this month empower a designated Central government officer to block public access to any information on the Net for wideranging reasons of security and national interest.

One glaring infirmity in the draft rules prepared by the department of information technology is that they make no stipulation for a prior hearing to the affected website. This is despite the fact that the web host who does not comply with the direction to remove the offending information is liable to be punished with imprisonment up to seven years.

Times View: The desire to curb the media’s freedom seems to run deep in the government. How else do you explain that while the draft rules give sweeping powers to officials, no attention has been paid to a basic thing like a hearing first? Babus tend to be quick in dubbing things as anti-national or compromising national security. Why should their ‘‘request’’ always be heeded? Also, what will these babus do if the web host is located outside India? Will the domestic media, therefore, bear the brunt of this potential abuse of power? The government should think this through before it finalises the draft rules.

Website gag: IT Act amendments not final Government had made an abortive attempt to gag TV channels through a draft notification amending the cable television network rules, but the sweeping power to control the content on websites is being fleshed out in the rules drafted under the recent amendments to the information technology (IT) Act.

Though it was passed by Parliament in December and the Presidential assent to it came in February, the IT amendment Act 2008 will not come into effect till the various rules drafted under its provisions, including the one on blocking public access to websites, are finalized.

Under the draft rules framed under section 69A of the IT amendment Act, every state or Central government department will be empowered to decide whether a certain news item, article, blog or advertisement relating to its jurisdiction is safe to remain on the Net.

Once somebody sends a “complaint” against any information displayed on the Net, the department concerned will take a call on whether the matter in question affects any of the six concerns mentioned in section 69A: interest of sovereignty or integrity of India, defence of India, security of the state, friendly relations with foreign states, public order or incitement to commit any cognizable offence relating to the other five reasons.

If it is satisfied about the need to pull the challenged information out of the public domain, the department concerned will send a “request” in the prescribed form to the “designated officer” at the Centre chosen by the secretary of the IT department. An interministerial committee headed by the designated officer will recommend whether the request to censor the web site should be accepted or not.

If the IT secretary approves the committee’s recommendation to take action, the designated officer will direct the intermediary or web host to block the offending information within the stipulated time. In the event of non-compliance, the designated officer can initiate criminal proceedings under section 69A, which imposes a maximum sentence of seven years on the web host.

The only remedy provided by the draft rules to media organizations is that a review committee will meet every two months to check whether the directions to block information have been issued in accordance with the IT Act.

Source:Times Of India Website Gag: IT Act Amendments Not Final, Govt Arming Itself To Censor News Websites

• Caught In The Web; Draft Rules Stir A Hornet's Nest: From Business-Standard

The new political set-up may result in Congress staking claim for the telecom portfolio, a sector which has not witnessed a Congress leader as minister for quitesome time now. Since the 2000's the telecom sector has witnessed the ministry being headed by BJP and DMK leaders. This was the same time that the industry went on a boom. Congress will certainly like to contribute to the growth of the sector as well. While the ministry appeals to DMK as well, some of whose leaders have immediate interests in sectors related to the ministry, the Congress may appoint one of its younger leaders to head the ministry. Jyotiraditya Scindia can fit in this role as he was the Minister of State for Communications in the last government and is well versed with the sector.

To start with, the new telecom minister is expected to take a final call on policy guidelines for 3G and wireless broadband services in the country. The last tenure of the UPA government failed to reach a consensus on the policy guidelines for these services. The reason was that the different ministries i.e. Home, Defence and Telecom where headed by leaders of different parties and there was always a trouble to work as a collective unit.

It is also expected that consensus pertaining to vacation of spectrum by the defence forces can be reached now.

Also with less dependence on allies, the Congress Party can expect to be less bothered by political leaders like Amar Singh who had pressurized the government to retrieve additional spectrum from incumbent GSM operators while extending support for the nuclear deal.

Overall the industry can expect relatively quick policy-related decisions and reduced delays over issues concerning the industry.

Pranab Mukherjee, P Chidambaram, A K Antony, Kamal Nath, Kapil Sibal, Salman Khursheed, Prakash Jaiswal, Ms Meira Kumar, Jaipal Reddy, H R Bhardwaj, Sisram Ola, Veerappa Moily, Madhavsinh Solanki and Bijoy Krishna Handique are likely to find Cabinet berths, according to Congress party sources.

Allies seeking Cabinet portfolios are Mamata Banerjee and Somendra Nath Mitra from Trinamool Congress, Sharad Pawar, the NCP supremo, Farooq Abdullah of National Conference and Shibu Soren of JMM.

Other names doing rounds for the 65-member council of ministers from Congress are Murli Deora or his son Milind Deora, Ghulam Nabi Azad, Jyotiraditya Scindia, Sachin Pilot, Oscar Fernandes, Jitin Prasada, Jagdambika Pal, Mukul Wasnik,Shashi Tharoor, Pawan Kumar Bansal, Kumari Selja, Naveen Jindal, Deepinder Hooda, Rao Inderjit Singh, Mahinder Singh Kaypee, Manish Tewari, Ms D Purandeswari, Suresh Kalmadi, Srikant Jena, Beni Prasad Verma, P L Punia, Mohammed Asarul Haque, Ms Anu Tandon, P C Chako, Meenakshi..

Natarjan, Gurudas Kamat, Ms Jyoti Mirdha, Ms Deep Dasmunsi, Virbhadra Singh, Subodh Kant Sahai,Bhakta Charan Das, Kanti Lal Bhuria, T K S Elangovan, Mallikarujan Kharge, Dharam Singh, Satpal Maharaj, Vijay Bahuguna, Dinsha Patel, A B Sayeed, Narayansamy, Ranee Narah, Dr Thockhom Meinya, Charan Das Mahant,Jagan Mohan Reddy, Aruna Kumar Vundavalli, Saifuddin Soz, and K Sambasiva Rao.

Probables among the allies are Praful Patel and Supriya Sule from NCP, Sultan Ahmed, Dinesh Trivedi and Sudip Bandhopadya from TMC, and Asaduddin Owaisi from AIMIM.

For the office of Speaker, Kishore Chandra Deo, Jaipal Reddy and Sushil Kumar Shinde are the front-runners.

The Scindias contest either from Guna or Gwalior but two family members never contest against each other.

In the past, they could fancy winning even without moving out of the palace, but today they have to work hard as everybody else. The `Mahal factor' -- as Madhya Pradesh describes the voter's affinity -- and the surname give them an edge, which the rivals find daunting, given that many still refer to the family members as maharaja or maharani, touch their feet and bow in deference.

Young Jyotiraditya, who a few months ago spent a night at a Dalit's home in his constituency, won by a huge margin of close to 2.5 lakh votes while Yashodhara Raje's margin at 26,591 was lesser the 36,474 margin in the 2007 by-election. Raje was first elected to the MP Assembly in 1998 when she won from Shivpuri, the summer residence of the Scindias, before the BJP fielded her in a by-election in Gwalior in 2007.

In the first election Jyotiraditya contested in 2002 after the tragic death of his father Madhavrao, his margin was a massive 4.5 lakh. It came down to 86,360 in 2004 but he managed to increase it substantially five years later though six of the eight Assembly segments in Guna are represented by the BJP.

The BJP's tally dropped from 24 to 16, with the party even losing Rewa to Mayawati's Bahujan Samaj Party - a seat the BSP last won in 1996.

GenNext leader Jyotiraditya Scindia won by a record margin of 2.5 lakh, for the third time in a row.

The results have come as a pleasant surprise for the Congress, given its lackluster campaign and the media forecast that the BJP would have a clean sweep in the state.

In contrast, the BJP is shocked by the results. Its methodical campaign, spirited campaigners and strategising right up to the booth stage have failed.

"The results are disappointing. That's all I can say for now," said a downcast Shivraj Singh, chief minister of Madhya Pradesh. The mood at Singh's house on Saturday was remarkably sombre and in sharp contrast to the wild jubilation five months ago, when the BJP swept the Assembly elections.

They had a well-thought-out strategy: Deflect the blame for the power crisis in Madhya Pradesh with Justice Marches (Nyay Yatras) to highlight how the Centre was not allocating enough coal to the state. The Congress failed miserably in countering the allegations.

However, as the polling dates approached, the discrimination plank lost steam.

Then Sonia Gandhi and son Rahul arrived, touring the state and talking about the misuse of Central funds.

"The election meetings of Soniaji and Rahulji were the most important factor in the Congress's satisfactory show in this election in MP," said state party president S Pachouri.

Congress's Jyotiraditya Scindia says, "The BJP has a full stop post 185. Congress will emerge as the single largest party."

This is an optimism borne out of the realisation that the Left may just end up being forced to support a Congress-led government. The Congress is also hopeful of striking deals with AIADMK and BJD while bringing back old allies (LJP and RJD) which are now a part of the Fourth Front.

The BJP though is equally optimistic.

BJP Spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad says, "The BJP's present allies and potential allies are doing well."

Already BJP's star campaigner, Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi is camping in the Capital - his brief to ensure that AIADMK support can be counted upon. Talks have already been initiated with BSP's Mayawati. The party hopes to be ahead of the Congress as early as May 17 in the hunt for allies. They have also not given up hope on bringing back Naveen Patnaik and the BJD into their fold.

But it's the Third Front that has the most to be worried. A picture of Kumaraswamy hiding his face while going to meet Sonia Gandhi secretly dealt a body blow to the Third Front as well as Jayalalithaa making it clear that she is keeping all options open.

All of this is leading to an edge of the seat thriller, which will build into a climax on May 16.