Centre bifurcates Communication Ministry; new ministry for IT

A new Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology has been created by the Centre after bifurcating Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MoC&IT) to exclusively deal with Aadhaar, promotion of internet and other related services.

According to the decision, there will be two ministries-- Ministry of Communications and Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology.

Further, the Ministry of Communications will have two departments--Department of Telecommunications and Department of Posts. The Department of Electronics and Information Technology (DeitY), which used to be in the erstwhile MoC&IT, will be under the new Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology.

President Pranab Mukherjee has approved changes in Government of India (Allocation of Business) Rules, 1961, in this regard, says a recent order by Cabinet Secretariat.

The newly formed Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology will deal with all matters related to Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI)--mandated to issue Aadhaar numbers to all Indian citizens.

The matters related to promotion of internet, information technology enabled services, initiative on bridging the digital divide and National Informatics Centre (NIC), among others, will also be dealt by the new ministry.

The UIDAI was in September last year shifted from NITI Aayog (formerly Planning Commission) to the administrative control of the MoC&IT.