The Ministry of Commerce and Industry is a cabinet-level institution of the Government of India responsible for formulating and implementing policies that promote foreign trade, regulate imports and exports, and foster industrial development. The Ministry was re-created on October 13, 1999, under Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, by merging the two independent Ministries of Commerce and Industry, which had existed since the post-independence renaming in 1947. This merger was intended to integrate commerce and industry functions more effectively.
The Ministry operates through two main departments: the Department of Commerce and the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT). The Department of Commerce formulates and monitors the Foreign Trade Policy and handles international trade agreements, while the DPIIT is responsible for industrial licensing, promoting Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), and administering intellectual property rights laws like the Patents Act, 1970, and the Copyright Act, 1957.
A key related institution is the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT), an attached office that implements the Foreign Trade Policy and issues the mandatory Importer Exporter Code (IEC). Following the economic liberalization of 1991, the DGFT's role shifted from one of "prohibition and control" to that of a "facilitator" for trade. The DPIIT itself was recently renamed from the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion in 2019. A significant recent change is the Ministry's push for the Jan Vishwas (Amendment of Provisions) Bill, 2026, which aims to decriminalize minor offenses by amending 784 provisions across 79 central laws to improve the ease of doing business. The Ministry also administers the Remission of Duties and Taxes on Exported Products (RoDTEP) Scheme, which was recently extended until September 30, 2026.