New Delhi, Apr 19 (IANS): The Department of Information Technology (DIT) has been renamed Department of Electronics and Information Technology (DeitY) to give importance to the electronics sector.

The department will be formally rechristened by union Communications Minister Kapil Sibal Thursday.

"Recently, the cabinet secretariat amended the Government of India (Allocation of Business) Rules 1961 and renamed the Department of Information Technology as Department of Electronics and Information Technology," the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology said in a statement Wednesday.

Earlier the Department of Information Technology was called Department of Electronics.

In October 1999, it was initially made Ministry of Information Technology. But with the merger of Departments of Telecommunications and Posts in the ministry, in December 2001, the department acquired its current name of Department of Information Technology.

However, in recent years, there has been a feeling that the electronics sector has not been given adequate importance by the government. This resulted in a demand from various quarters of industry, academia and other stakeholders that the department should provide increased focus to the electronics sector.

The department is also in the process of initiating several measures to renew the thrust to the Electronics System Design and Manufacturing (ESDM) in the country. A new National Policy on Electronics is under finalization and a draft of the same was released by the communications minister last October.