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Ministry

Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology is the Government of India's apex department for information technology, electronics and internet governance. It owns the state's digital-public-infrastructure programme (Digital India, DigiLocker, the Aadhaar authority) and writes the rules that govern online intermediaries and personal data. It is the institution that sets who may operate online in India, on what terms, and how citizens' data is handled.

Updated

Headquarters
Electronics Niketan, New Delhi
Formed
19 July 2016 (elevated from the Department of Electronics and IT)
Budget 2025-26
Rs 26,026.25 crore (BE 2025-26, up from Rs 17,566.31 crore revised estimate for 2024-25)
Primary statute
Information Technology Act, 2000
Coverage since 200026 recorded events ·92% from official & primary sources
2000–2004: 1 event20002005–2009: 1 event2010–2014: 1 event20102015–2019: 8 events2020–2024: 5 events20202025–2026: 10 events

Role

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology is the Union government’s policy and delivery arm for the digital economy. It runs the Digital India programme and the digital public infrastructure built on it — including DigiLocker and the Aadhaar identity system through the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), which sits under the ministry — and it houses the technical institutions of the Indian state’s IT capacity: the National Informatics Centre (NIC), the national cyber-incident agency CERT-In, the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC), and the Controller of Certifying Authorities. It also administers the industrial push into electronics and semiconductor manufacturing (PLI schemes, the India Semiconductor Mission) and artificial intelligence (the IndiaAI Mission).

Its second, regulatory face makes it a genuine seat of power over the online sphere. Under the Information Technology Act, 2000 the ministry writes the rules that condition intermediaries’ legal safe harbour (the IT Rules 2021, amended in 2021, 2023 and again in 2026), and under the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 and its 2025 Rules it sets the national regime for how personal data may be collected and processed. Since 1 May 2026 it also administers the Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Act, 2025, which bans online money games and is enforced through an Online Gaming Authority of India attached to the ministry. Through these levers it shapes the terms on which platforms, apps and data-handlers operate in the country, alongside the Reserve Bank of India in payments and the ministry’s semiconductor and chip-manufacturing programmes.

Desk maintained by IndiaStand editorial cycles. Officeholders are transient; this dossier tracks the institution.

Timeline since 1947

  1. reference

    Information Technology Act enacted

    India's primary cyber-law, based on the UNCITRAL Model Law on Electronic Commerce, gave legal recognition to electronic records and created the intermediary safe-harbour regime (Section 79).

    source 1

  2. reference

    IT (Amendment) Act 2008 receives assent, rebuilding the cyber-law regime

    Parliament passed the amendment on 22-23 December 2008 and it received assent on 5 February 2009, inserting the Section 66 offence series (including Section 66A on offensive messages) and the Section 69 interception, monitoring and decryption powers that the department administers.

    source 1source 2

  3. reference

    Department of Information Technology renamed Department of Electronics and IT

    The predecessor department was renamed to place electronics alongside information technology in its mandate, the naming that carried into the 2016 ministry.

    source 1

  4. reference

    Digital India programme launched

    The flagship programme to build population-scale digital infrastructure and deliver government services online was launched under the ministry's predecessor department.

    source 1

  5. reference

    Supreme Court strikes down Section 66A in Shreya Singhal

    The Court held Section 66A unconstitutional as vague and over-broad under Article 19(1)(a), upheld the Section 69A blocking power, and read down Section 79 so that intermediaries lose safe harbour only on a court or government order — fixing the boundaries of the ministry's content powers.

    source 1source 2

  6. reference

    Aadhaar Act passed as a money bill

    The Lok Sabha passed the Aadhaar (Targeted Delivery of Financial and Other Subsidies, Benefits and Services) Bill by voice vote on 11 March 2016; its introduction as a money bill allowed it to bypass Rajya Sabha amendment.

    source 1

  7. reference

    UIDAI becomes a statutory authority under the ministry

    Provisions of the Aadhaar Act came into force from 12 July 2016 (gazetted 12 September 2016), converting UIDAI from an executive body into a statutory authority; it sits under the ministry, giving the desk custody of the national identity system.

    source 1source 2

  8. reference

    MeitY constituted as a full ministry

    The Department of Electronics and Information Technology was elevated into a standalone ministry, bifurcated from the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology.

    source 1

  9. reference

    Ministry constitutes the Srikrishna committee on a data-protection framework

    The ministry set up an expert committee chaired by a retired Supreme Court judge to deliberate a national data protection framework — the process that produced every draft from the 2019 bill to the 2023 Act.

    source 1

  10. reference

    Nine-judge bench holds privacy a fundamental right (Puttaswamy)

    The Supreme Court unanimously held that privacy is protected as an intrinsic part of the right to life and personal liberty under Article 21, overruling earlier precedent and creating the constitutional obligation the ministry's data-protection legislation answers to.

    source 1

  11. reference

    Constitution bench upholds Aadhaar but strikes Section 57

    A five-judge bench upheld the Aadhaar Act's validity while striking down Section 57, ending the ability of private entities to compel Aadhaar, and barring mandatory Aadhaar for bank accounts, mobile connections and school admissions.

    source 1source 2

  12. reference

    IT Rules 2021 notified

    The Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code Rules imposed due-diligence, grievance-redressal and traceability obligations on intermediaries; a 2023 amendment added an online-gaming framework and a government fact-check unit.

    source 1

  13. reference

    CERT-In directions impose six-hour cyber-incident reporting

    Directions issued under Section 70B of the IT Act required entities to report cyber incidents to CERT-In within six hours, keep ICT logs within Indian territory, synchronise system clocks to NPL or NIC servers, and placed additional obligations on VPN and VPS providers; CERT-In later issued FAQs relaxing some requirements.

    source 1

  14. reference

    Personal Data Protection Bill 2019 withdrawn, restarting the statute

    The government withdrew the 2019 bill after the Joint Parliamentary Committee process, discarding three years of drafting and forcing the restart that produced the shorter Digital Personal Data Protection Bill introduced on 3 August 2023.

    source 1

  15. reference

    Digital Personal Data Protection Act passed

    Parliament passed India's first standalone data-protection statute (Act 22 of 2023); it received Presidential assent on 11 August 2023.

    source 1

  16. official

    IndiaAI Mission approved

    The Union Cabinet approved the IndiaAI Mission with an outlay of Rs 10,371.92 crore for compute, datasets, foundational models and skilling, administered by MeitY.

    source 1

  17. official

    Budget 2025-26 raises allocation

    The Union Budget lifted MeitY's allocation to about Rs 26,026 crore, weighted toward electronics-manufacturing PLI, semiconductor incentives and the IndiaAI Mission.

    source 1

  18. official

    Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Act enacted

    Parliament enacted the Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Act, 2025, banning online money games (chance, skill or both), their advertising and payment processing, while recognising e-sports and online social games and providing for an Online Gaming Authority of India — superseding the 2023 IT Rules approach of self-regulatory bodies for real-money gaming.

    source 1

  19. official

    DPDP Rules 2025 notified

    MeitY notified the Digital Personal Data Protection Rules, 2025, operationalising the 2023 Act in phases and bringing the provisions establishing the Data Protection Board into force.

    source 1

  20. reference

    Allocation for 2026-27 falls to about Rs 21,633 crore

    The ministry's budget for 2026-27 is recorded at about Rs 21,632.96 crore, below the Rs 26,026 crore budget estimate for 2025-26; the figure is drawn from an encyclopedic source and has not been checked against the expenditure budget document.

    source 1

  21. reference

    IT Amendment Rules 2026 notified (synthetically generated information)

    MeitY notified the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Amendment Rules, 2026, defining 'synthetically generated information' and requiring intermediaries to label AI-generated content; per the notification the amendment took effect on 20 February 2026.

    source 1

  22. reference

    Draft IT Rules Second Amendment published for consultation

    MeitY published draft Second Amendment Rules that would make intermediary compliance with ministry clarifications, advisories, directions and SOPs a condition of safe harbour (proposed Rule 3(4)) and extend the Part III oversight mechanism to users who share news and current-affairs content; the Internet Freedom Foundation described the draft as an expansion of executive power over online speech.

    source 1

  23. official

    Online gaming law and rules in force; Online Gaming Authority constituted

    The Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Rules, 2026 came into force on 1 May 2026 with the Act, setting a determination test for whether a game is a prohibited online money game, a registration regime for e-sports and notified social games, and the Online Gaming Authority of India as a digital-first regulator.

    source 1

  24. official

    Selection begins for the Data Protection Board's Chairperson and Members

    MeitY wrote to all Union ministries, states and its own offices seeking nominations for the Chairperson and Members of the Data Protection Board of India, established on paper under Section 18 of the DPDP Act; a LiveLaw analysis of 1 August 2026 reported that no appointment had yet been made.

    source 1source 2

  25. gdelt

    Supreme Court stays High Court challenges to the Sahyog portal

    On the Union's transfer petitions, a bench led by the Chief Justice stayed four cases in the Karnataka and Bombay High Courts — including X Corp's appeal against the 2025 single-judge ruling upholding the portal — that challenge the Sahyog takedown portal and the Section 79(3)(b) / Rule 3(1)(d) takedown power.

    source 1

  26. gdelt

    IndiaAI Mission: 20 foundation-model proposals and 237 compute projects reported to Parliament

    A Lok Sabha reply by the Minister of State reported 20 indigenous foundation-model proposals selected (12 large multimodal, 8 small language models, IP retained by applicants), 15 empanelled compute providers, 237 projects with 93.18 lakh subsidised GPU hours, a purchase order for a ~1.1 EFLOPS AI system at the NIC data centre, and 58 AI Centres of Excellence approved.

    source 1

Frequently asked

What is India's Digital Personal Data Protection Act, and when do its 2025 Rules take effect?
The Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 (Act 22 of 2023) is India's first standalone data-protection statute; Parliament passed it in August 2023 and it received Presidential assent on 11 August 2023. It sat largely unoperational for more than two years, because an Act of this kind needs rules to function. MeitY notified the Digital Personal Data Protection Rules, 2025 on 13 November 2025, operationalising the Act in phases and bringing into force the provisions establishing the Data Protection Board — the adjudicating body for breaches. The Rules stagger which duties bite when: consent-manager registration opens twelve months after notification (13 November 2026), and the substantive obligations on data fiduciaries apply eighteen months after notification (13 May 2027). Industry reporting describes a January 2026 MeitY proposal to shorten that window to twelve months for large data fiduciaries; IndiaStand has not located an amending notification as of 7 October 2026. The Board exists in law but, per a LiveLaw analysis of 1 August 2026, had no appointed Chairperson or Members; MeitY began the selection process with a communication dated 6 May 2026 seeking nominations. So the Act's passage date, the Rules' notification date and the date a given obligation applies to a data fiduciary are three different things. official · as of 2026-10-07 · source 1 source 2 source 3 source 4 source 5
What are the IT Rules 2021 and how do they regulate online intermediaries in India?
The Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 set the conditions an intermediary must meet to keep the safe-harbour protection that Section 79 of the IT Act, 2000 gives it against liability for user content. They impose due-diligence obligations, a grievance-redressal machinery with named officers and fixed timelines, and traceability requirements on significant social-media intermediaries. A 2023 amendment added an online-gaming framework and a government fact-check unit. The Rules have been amended again since: on 10 February 2026 MeitY notified amendment rules defining "synthetically generated information" and requiring intermediaries to label AI-generated content, effective 20 February 2026. A further draft, the Second Amendment Rules published for consultation on 30 March 2026, would make compliance with MeitY advisories and directions a condition of safe harbour and extend the Part III oversight mechanism to users who share news and current-affairs content; IndiaStand has not located a final notification as of 7 October 2026. The government's takedown channel is also in court: on 22 July 2026 the Supreme Court stayed High Court proceedings challenging the Sahyog portal and the Rule 3(1)(d) takedown power while it hears the Union's petitions to transfer the cases to itself. The structural feature to understand is the lever — these are rules under an Act, not an Act, and they operate by conditioning safe harbour rather than by directly prohibiting content. reference · as of 2026-10-07 · source 1 source 2 source 3 source 4 source 5
What is Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology?
The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology is the Government of India's apex department for information technology, electronics and internet governance. It owns the state's digital-public-infrastructure programme (Digital India, DigiLocker, the Aadhaar authority) and writes the rules that govern online intermediaries and personal data. It is the institution that sets who may operate online in India, on what terms, and how citizens' data is handled.
When was Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology established?
Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology was established 2016.
What does Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology do?
Its remit covers IT, electronics and internet policy, Digital public infrastructure and e-governance (Digital India, DigiLocker, UIDAI/Aadhaar), Intermediary regulation under the IT Act and IT Rules, Data protection (Digital Personal Data Protection Act and Rules), Online gaming regulation (Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Act, 2025 and the Online Gaming Authority of India), Cybersecurity (CERT-In) and electronics manufacturing (semiconductors, PLI, IndiaAI).
What is the latest on Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology?
As of 2026-10-07: IndiaAI Mission: 20 foundation-model proposals and 237 compute projects reported to Parliament. A Lok Sabha reply by the Minister of State reported 20 indigenous foundation-model proposals selected (12 large multimodal, 8 small language models, IP retained by applicants), 15 empanelled compute providers, 237 projects with 93.18 lakh subsidised GPU hours, a purchase order for a ~1.1 EFLOPS AI system at the NIC data centre, and 58 AI Centres of Excellence approved.

Official sources

The government's own pages for this institution — go straight to the primary.

Implementation status and comparisons

What is documented — stage by stage, cell by cell — for instruments this ministry is responsible for or covered by.

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