Prasad rewinds

If Union Minister of Communications and IT Ravi Shankar Prasad is to be believed, the success of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) policies on technology lies in the previous NDA government and, more specifically, his own achievements. Addressing a gathering at Ficci, he listed a host of actions he took while he was information and broadcasting minister in the last NDA government. If there has been a communication revolution in the country by the way of new TV channels or FM radio stations over the last couple of years, he said, it is because he opened up the sector. Direct-to-home (DTH) services have proliferated in India because of his initiative and so on and so forth. The message: what he did to communications he will do to technology in his current avatar. With little to show for in these early days of the new NDA, Prasad's self-praise is a unique way of building confidence.