Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade

Housed inside Udyog Bhawan in New Delhi, the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) is the central government's nerve center for industrial policy, foreign direct investment, startup ecosystems, and internal trade regulation. It operates under the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, and its reach touches every corner of India's economy, from the factory floor to the retail shop, from a fledgling startup to a multinational corporation.

DPIIT's portfolio is unusually broad. It formulates FDI policy, runs the Make in India and Startup India campaigns, oversees the Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC), and manages the National Single Window System for business approvals. It also coordinates with the patent office and bodies like the National Institute of Design. The department's decisions shape how easy it is to do business in India, how foreign capital flows in, and how domestic industries compete.

Originally created in 1995 as the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP), it was renamed in January 2019 to explicitly include internal trade, a signal that retail, e-commerce, and supply chains were now core to its mission. Since then, DPIIT has pushed into digital commerce regulation, drafted a National Retail Trade Policy, and launched ONDC, an ambitious attempt to democratize e-commerce.[edit]

DPIIT's mission is to formulate and implement policies that accelerate industrial growth, attract foreign investment, improve the ease of doing business, and foster a vibrant startup culture. It aims to create a regulatory environment where businesses can thrive, while also protecting the interests of small traders and consumers in internal trade.[edit]

DPIIT began life in 1995 as the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion, created to consolidate industrial policy functions that had been scattered across ministries. This was a direct response to the 1991 economic liberalization, which dismantled the license-permit raj and opened India to global markets. DIPP took charge of FDI policy in 2000, gradually liberalizing sectors like telecom, retail, and defense.

In 2014, the newly elected government launched Make in India, with DIPP as the nodal agency. The campaign aimed to turn India into a global manufacturing hub. Two years later, DIPP rolled out Startup India, a flagship program to nurture entrepreneurship. Both initiatives dramatically raised the department's profile.

January 2019 brought a major reorganization. The department was renamed DPIIT, adding Internal Trade to its title and mandate. This change acknowledged the growing importance of retail, e-commerce, and supply chain policy. Since then, DPIIT has launched ONDC (2021), drafted the National Retail Trade Policy (2023), and expanded the National Single Window System to cover over 30 central departments.[edit]