[Ministry of Commerce and Industry]

The Ministry of Commerce and Industry is a cabinet-level ministry of the Government of India, an institution responsible for formulating and implementing the country's trade and industrial policies. Its primary purpose is to boost, regulate, and monitor the trade of goods and services both domestically and internationally, thereby fostering economic growth and industrial development.

The Ministry's roots trace back to the Department of Commerce and Industry established in 1905 under the British Raj. After independence in 1947, the pre-existing Department of Commerce was redesignated as the Ministry of Commerce and administratively paired with the Ministry of Industries and Supplies. The current unified Ministry was re-created on October 13, 1999, under Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, by merging the two independent Ministries of Commerce and Industry.

The Ministry functions through two main departments: the Department of Commerce and the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT). The Department of Commerce is entrusted with formulating, implementing, and monitoring the Foreign Trade Policy (FTP), managing multilateral and bilateral commercial relations, and overseeing Special Economic Zones (SEZs). The DPIIT, which was established in 1995 as the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion and renamed in 2019, is responsible for the overall Industrial Policy, facilitating Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) flows, and administering initiatives like Startup India and Make in India. The DPIIT also oversees Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs) relating to patents, trademarks, and copyrights. The Department of Commerce has a medium-term vision to achieve $2 trillion in exports of goods and services by 2027-28.

A significant recent change is the renaming of the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion to the DPIIT in 2019, which expanded its mandate to include the promotion of internal trade. The Ministry also implements key legislation like the Foreign Trade (Development and Regulation) Act, 1992, and the SEZ Act, 2005.