The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) is a ministry of the Government of India, an executive institution responsible for formulating and implementing policies for the country's digital economy, electronics, and information technology sector. Its origin traces back to the Department of Information Technology, which was renamed the Department of Electronics and Information Technology (DeitY) in 2012. MeitY was formally established as a full-fledged ministry on July 19, 2016, by bifurcating DeitY from the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, to create a standalone agency focused on the growth of the electronics industry and IT policy.
MeitY's core mechanism involves administering the Information Technology Act, 2000 (Act No. 21 of 2000), which provides the legal framework for electronic commerce, digital signatures, and cybercrime. Key provisions it utilizes include Section 69A of the IT Act, 2000, which empowers the government to block public access to information for reasons like national security or public order. The Ministry also implements the flagship Digital India Programme, launched in 2015, to transform India into a digitally empowered society.
MeitY connects to several related institutions, such as the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In), and autonomous societies like the Software Technology Parks of India (STPI). The IT Act, 2000, which MeitY administers, has seen significant judicial review, notably the Supreme Court's 2015 judgment in Shreya Singhal v. Union of India, which struck down Section 66A as unconstitutional. Recently, MeitY has been actively involved in regulating intermediaries under the IT (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021, and has invoked Section 69A for content blocking, as seen in the Telegram FZ LLC v Union of India case.