Modi govt 3.0 Cabinet: Ashwini Vaishnaw to lead railway ministry again

Minister retains IT too, loses telecom but gets I&B

Ashwini Vaishnaw will lead the Ministry of Railways, Information and Broadcasting (I&B), and Electronics & Information Technology (IT) under Modi 3.0.

A former Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer, who was born on July 18, 1970 in Rajasthan, Vaishnaw is a Member of the Rajya Sabha from Odisha since June 2019 and has served as a collector in Cuttack and Balasore districts of the state.

A bureaucrat-turned politician, Vaishnaw holds a bachelor's degree and a gold medal in electronics and communications engineering, and a master's degree in industrial management and engineering from IIT-Kanpur.

During his tenure in Modi 2.0, India’s railway network has seen major infrastructure upgrades, with a reduction in level crossings, increased rolling stock and station redevelopment projects, and near-100 per cent electrification.

With high investment by the Centre in budgetary allocations, the minister has been working on overhauling safety and capacity infrastructure in the railway network. Since 2014, the Centre has constructed 31,000 km of railway tracks, and wants to build 25,000 km of new tracks in the next five years.

As the Minister of Electronics and IT, he increasingly focussed on areas such as electronics and semiconductor manufacturing (ESM), data privacy, internet regulations, cybersecurity, and artificial intelligence (AI).

As Telecom Minister, Vaishnaw oversaw the expansion of the 5G rollout, which has become the fastest such exercise globally. He also negotiated the passing of the landmark Telecommunications Act, which replaced centuries-old laws in the sector, and focussed on satellite spectrum.

His tenure in the Railways was called into question in 2023, after a triple-train crash in Odisha killed 300 and injured over 1,000 people, with opposition parties asking for his resignation.

In the recent past, the plight of migrant workers in general coaches of trains was raised as a poll issue. It was alleged that the minister had abdicated the national transporter’s responsibility to the poor.

In his second innings in the Railways, Vaishnaw will oversee the execution of several important initiatives in the Centre’s 100-day agenda, such as overhaul of capacity and safety infrastructure, bringing the first bullet trains from Japan to India, and improving its digital user experience with a Super App.