Industry
            THE Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP), one of the departments under
      the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, was established in 1995 and was reconstituted 2000
      with the merger of the Department of Industrial Development in it. Earlier separate Ministries for
      Small Scale Industries & Agro and Rural Industries (SSI&A&RI) and Heavy Industries and
      Public Enterprises (HI&PE) were created in place in 1999. With progressive liberalisation of the
      Indian economy, initiated in 1991, there has been a consistent shift in the role and functions of
      this Department. From regulation and administration of the industrial sector, it has been
      transformed into facilitating investment and technology flows and monitoring industrial
      development in the liberalised environment.
            The role and functions of DIPP, primarily include: (a) formulation and implementation of
      industrial policy and strategies for industrial development in conformity with the development
      needs and national objectives; (b) monitoring the industrial growth, in general, and performance
      of industries specifically assigned to it, in particular, including advice on all industrial and
      technical matters; (c) formulation of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) Policy and promotion,
      approval and facilitation of FDI; (d) formulation of policies relating to Intellectual Property
      Rights in patents, trademarks, industrial designs and geographical indications of goods and
      administration of regulations, rules made there under.
            The Department monitors the industrial growth and production, in general, and selected
      industrial sectors, such as cement, paper and pulp, leather, tyre and rubber, light electrical
      industries, consumer goods, consumer durables, light machine tools, light industrial machinery,
      light engineering industries etc., in particular. Appropriate interventions are made on the basis of
      policy inputs generated by monitoring and periodic review of the industrial sector. The
      Department studies, assesses and forecasts the need for technological development in specific
      industrial sectors. On this basis, it plans for modernization and technological upgradation of the
      Indian industry so that, it keeps pace with the international developments in industrial technology
      on a continuing basis.
            In tune with its role as a facilitator of industrial development and investment, the
      Department plays an active role in investment promotion through dissemination of information
      on investment climate and opportunities in the country and by advising prospective investors
      about licensing policy and procedures, foreign collaboration and import of capital goods, etc.
      The Department is also responsible for Intellectual Property Rights relating to patents, designs,
      trade marks and Geographical indication of goods and oversees the initiative relating to their
      promotion and protection.
            International cooperation for industrial partnerships is achieved through both bilateral and
      multilateral arrangements. At bilateral level, in addition to being nodal Department for Indo-
      Swedish, Indo-Libyan, Indo-Hungarian and Indo-Belarus Joint Commissions, the Department is
      represented on joint commissions and joint working groups with select countries. Similar
      initiative is also in place with the European Union.
            The Department administers the central legislations: The Explosives Act, 1884, and the
      Inflammable Substances Act, 1952; the Salt Cess Act, 1953; the Patents Act, 1970, the Trade and