Centre Splits Communication Ministry; IT to Get New Ministry

The central government has decided to create a new Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology. The decision followed the decision of bifurcation of the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MoC&IT) that will now conduct the operations related to Aadhaar card, promotion and management of the internet and other similar services.

As per the decision, now there will be two separate ministries, i.e. Ministry of Communications and Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology.

Another update is that the Ministry of Communications will comprise two departments, namely Department of Telecommunications and Department of Posts.

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (DeitY), which was earlier a part of the former MoC&IT, will now be conducting their own tasks and responsibilities. It will be responsible for all matters related to Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) that is supposed to allocate Aadhaar numbers to the citizens of Indian.

According to a recent order by Cabinet Secretariat, President Pranab Mukherjee has given his nod for the changes in Government of India (Allocation of Business) Rules, 1961.

Apart from this, matters regarding the promotion of internet, information technology enabled services, attempt to close the digital divide and National Informatics Centre (NIC) will also fall under the task description of the new ministry.