Department of IT Renamed Department of Electronics and Information Technology

The Department of Information Technology, DIT (Ministry of Communications and Information Technology) has been renamed Department of Electronics and Information Technology, DeitY.

Recently, the Cabinet Secretariat amended the Government of India (Allocation of Business) Rules 1961 and renamed the Department of Information Technology as Department of Electronics and Information Technology (IN Hindi it is Electroniki aur Soochana Praudyogiki Vibhag).

In the early days, the Department of Information Technology was called Department of Electronics. In October 1999, it was initially made Ministry of Information Technology. But with the merger of Departments of Telecommunications and Posts in the Ministry, in December 2001, the Department acquired its current name of Department of Information Technology.

However, in recent years, there has been a feeling that the electronics sector has not been given adequate importance by the Government. This resulted in a demand from various quarters of industry, academia and other stakeholders that the Department should provide increased focus to the electronics sector. The renaming of the Department is a symbolic move in that direction.

The Department is in the process of initiating several measures to renew the thrust to the Electronics System Design and Manufacturing (ESDM) in the country. A new National Policy on Electronics is under finalization and a draft of the same was released by the Minister of Communications & IT last October. The Policy outlines the rationale and road map for the development of ESDM sector in the country. One of the declarations made in the draft National Policy on Electronics is that the Department would be renamed as Department of Electronics and Information Technology. Accordingly, a proposal for the renaming was taken up. This change is a result of that effort.

It is expected that this move will send a positive signal to domestic as well as foreign investors in the sector. Moreover, within Government and within the Department, it will help provide higher priority to policy initiatives relating to electronics.

The rechristening of the Department of Information Technology (DIT) as Department of Electronics and Information Technology (DeitY) would be ceremonially formalized at the hands of Sh Kapil Sibal , Minister of Communications and Information Technology) at an event on 19th April 2012 ( Thursday) at Electronics Niketan, New Delhi .

BK:AT:PM

(Release ID :82358)

Source : PIB dtd 18/04/2012