The Hindu Business Line : Raja to take charge as IT Minister today

New Delhi May 15 Mr Andimuthu Raja will take charge of the Communications and IT Ministry on Wednesday, replacing Mr Dayanidhi Maran. A senior member of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, Mr Raja was the Minister for Environment till Monday.

Mr Raja, 44, is a lawyer and has been elected to Parliament three times from Perambalur constituency, which is his birthplace. Mr Raja started his third term in Parliament in 2004. He had earlier served as a Minister of State for the ministries of health and family welfare and rural development between October 1999 and December 2003. Mr Raja is an alumni of the Government Law College in Madurai, Government Law College in Tiruchi and Government Arts College, Musiri in Tiruchi. A voracious reader and a poet himself, Mr Raja will now take forward the country's high growth areas of IT and telecom. Top priorities include policy for third generation mobile, vacating spectrum for existing operators and rural broadband policy.

He has authored many books including "An Autobiography of Democracy" and "Oru Suyasarithai," which is a collection of Tamil poems. Mr Raja was first elected to the 11th Lok Sabha from a DMK ticket in 1996, and was re-elected for a second term during the 13th Lok Sabha. He was made the Union Minister of State for Rural Development in the BJP-NDA regime, a post which he held for a year till September 2000. Consecutively, Mr Raja was elevated as Union Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare, during the Cabinet reshuffle and served till the end 2003.