New Delhi, Sept 11: Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee is understood to have approved the formation of a Group of Ministers to look into various issues in the telecom sector including the long standing dispute between basic and cellular operators over limited mobility telephony. The GoM would be headed by Finance Minister Jaswant Singh, highly-placed sources said, adding that other ministers in the group include Communication Minister Arun Shourie, I&B minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, Defence Minister George Fernandes, Law Minister Arun Jaitley, and External Affairs Minister Yashwant Sinha.
Sources said the Prime Minister has given his approval to the constitution of GoM for which notification would be issued soon.

The terms of reference of the group were not immediately known. But sources said the GoM would deal with issues like spectrum management for growth of telecom sector, how to achieve targets of rural telephony as prescribed by NTP, Convergence Bill-related issues, unified licensing, FDI matters, WLL mobility and mergers and acquisitions.
The formation of the GoM was preceded by meetings of industry stalwarts with Deputy Prime Minister LK Advani over the last two weeks. Bureau Report