BJP MP and former Minister of State for Finance, Anurag Thakur, was sworn in as the Cabinet Minister on Wednesday and given the charge of Information & Broadcasting Ministry along with the portfolio of Youth Affairs and Sports Ministry.

The 46-year-old MP from Hamirpur in Himachal Pradesh was inducted into the Modi government in 2019 and was given the portfolios of the Minister of State for Finance and Corporate Affairs.

Thakur takes charge of the I&B Ministry at a time when the Ministry has been busy bringing new regulations notably in the space of the fast-growing OTT sector.

The new IT rules that focus on grievance redressal process for complaints against the content of OTT platforms and age-based classification among others has been implemented recently. The Ministry will now be looking at enforcing these norms for OTT platforms as well as the digital news players. However, several digital news players have filed petitions against the new IT rules challenging the Digital Media Ethics Code.

Film fraternity’s concerns

At the same time, the Ministry is in the process of amending the decades-old Cinematograph Act. The film fraternity has raised concerns regarding one of the provisions that proposes to give the government powers to ask the Chairman of the Censor Board to re-examine a film even after it has been certified for public exhibition.

The Ministry has also been looking at bringing in a National Broadcasting Policy to define a broad vision for the growth of the media and entertainment sector in the country.

Thakur, who was the former President of Board of Control for Cricket in India, is taking over the portfolio of Sports and Youth Affairs, just ahead of the Tokyo Olympics games.

There will be a razor sharp focus on India’s medal tally. It will be interesting to see what learnings the Ministry will take from the upcoming Olympics to strengthen India’s position in the world of Sports.

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