Prasad, in his first formal press conference since taking over three weeks ago, said the government is working on expansion of telecom services, incentives for chip-making units in certain cities and the setting up of postal banks.
"The government has been repeatedly sharing its concern that retrospective taxation is something that needs to be avoided. As far as resolution is concerned, as I told you, the Finance Ministry is looking in to it," he said, referring to the tax disputes involving telecom firms.
Vodafone faces a tax liability of over Rs 20,000 crore over its 2007 acquisition of Hong Kong-based Hutchison Whampoa's Indian mobile assets.
The British company has rejected the demand, saying any tax, if due, was on the seller rather than the buyer.
Nokia was forced to abandon the transfer of its Chennai plant to Microsoft Corp in April, part of the software company's acquisition of the Finnish firm's handset business, because of a tax standoff.
Prasad said the government plans to spend Rs 5,000 crore to set up about 8,000 mobile towers in the northeastern states and also monitor the deployment of mobile towers in nine Naxal-infested states.
On a recent report by Vodafone, which said India is among 29 countries that sought access to its network to intercept calls, SMSes and e-mails, Prasad said he has asked the Department of Telecom to look into it and work with its representative for early redressal of the matter.
The minister said he will focus on connecting 2.5 lakh village panchayats with broadband in the next three years.
"Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee's govt was known for national highways and Mr (Narendra) Modi's govt will be known for broadband highways," Prasad said.
Prasad said he has asked the postal department to work on a proposal for setting up postal banks.
"We are going to start a new scheme of postal banking. In my priorities, I have selected postal bank also...Earlier postal department had applied for licence before RBI which is on hold as of now" he said.