After BJP stalwart Narendra Modi swept the 2014 general elections and took charge as the next Prime Minister of India, the country got its new IT minister in the form of Ravi Shankar Prasad.
The senior BJP leader and party spokesperson will also handle the telecom and communications, and law & justice portfolios.
Prasad, a lawyer and politician, holds a masters degree in political science from Patna University and also a law degree. He has been practicing at the Patna High Court since 1980. He was designated Senior Advocate at the Patna High Court in 1999 and Senior Advocate at the Supreme Court of India in 2000.
As far as the Information Technology sector goes, although the arena seems new to him, but the industry, currently grappling with tough times, has eyes set on him hoping to bring back the good times.
"He is a new person for IT. His background is mainly from law and justice. But still we have lots of expectations from him," said Paramjit Singh Juneja of Secant Technologies, Ludhiana.
"Firstly, we want him to revitalize the IT sector structure, since now its not the preferred section of the government. Tax issue is another area which we want should be looked upon. We are hoping of some concessions on hard ware. Also, we want him to take strict action against e-commerce companies who try to save their tax. Some of them send goods and materials on challans, instead of in-voice, which is creating a lot of problem."
Further highlighting the e-commerce issue, Ashfaq Ahmad Bhat, Babbage Computers, Srinagar, said, "IT trade has gone down and e-commerce is one of the reasons for it. Therefore, we want the new minister to look into the matter and set proper guidelines related to rates, for them. Also, he should see how these online stores make margins, since they buy products from the dealers and not from the companies."
Meanwhile, expressing his expectations from the new minister, Srinivas Gumidelli, Cache Peripherals, Hyderabad, said, " We want the government to improve IT infrastructure and create a platform for new and small companies to go global."
Well, the partners have pinned hopes on the new minister, but how well he manages to score in his report card, only time will tell!