The Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) is a central government department, an institution under the Ministry of Commerce and Industry in India, responsible for the formulation and implementation of the nation's overall industrial policy.
The department was originally established in 1995 and was reconstituted in 2000 with the merger of the Department of Industrial Development. It was renamed to DPIIT on January 27, 2019, from the erstwhile Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion (DIPP), to expand its mandate to include the promotion of internal trade. This change addressed the need for a nodal body to facilitate investment and industrial development in the liberalized economic environment.
DPIIT works by formulating industrial policies, promoting Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), and enhancing the ease of doing business by simplifying regulatory processes. It is the nodal department for the Consolidated FDI Policy, which is updated under the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA), 1999. It administers major government initiatives like Make in India and the Startup India scheme, and oversees the administration of Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) through the Controller General of Patents, Designs and Trade Marks (CGPDTM).
The department has undergone recent changes, notably in February 2026, when it replaced the 2019 startup recognition framework. The new framework formally defined "Deep Tech Startups" and increased the maximum annual turnover threshold for regular startups from INR 100 crore to INR 200 crore. Furthermore, in 2026, DPIIT introduced a revised Standard Operating Procedure for FDI proposals, mandating a 12-week clearance timeline.