Press Information Bureau

The Press Information Bureau, commonly abbreviated as PIB,[1] is a nodal agency of the Government of India under Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. Based in National Media Centre, New Delhi,[2] Press Information Bureau disseminates information to print, electronic and web media on government plans, policies, programme initiatives and achievements. It is available in 14 Indian official languages, which are Dogri, Punjabi, Bengali, Oriya, Gujarati, Marathi, Meitei (Manipuri), Tamil, Kannada, Telugu, Malayalam, Konkani and Urdu, in addition to Hindi and English, out of the 22 official languages of the Indian Republic.[lower-alpha 1][3][4]

Press Information Bureau
पत्र सूचना कार्यालय
Agency overview
FormedJune 1919 (1919-06)
HeadquartersNational Media Centre, New Delhi
Minister responsible
Agency executive
  • Manish Desai, IIS, Principal Director General
Websitepib.gov.in

The head of PIB is also the Official Spokesperson of the Government of India and holds the rank of Principal Director General (Special Secretary equivalent). The post is currently headed by Manish Desai.[5]

History

The Press Information Bureau was established in June 1919 as a small cell under Home Ministry under the British government. Its main task was to prepare a report on India to be placed before the British Parliament. It was then located in Shimla.

The first head of the publicity cell was Dr. L.F. Rushbrook Williams of Allahabad University who was designated as Officer on Special Duty. Prof. Williams had earlier worked with Sir Stanley Reed on the Central Publicity Board.

In 1941, J. Natrajan became the first Indian to be head the Bureau as Principal Information Officer. The organisation's name was changed to the Press Information Bureau in 1946.

The Bureau has been reconstituted many times since independence of India in 1947.

Structure and Functioning of Press Information Bureau

Administratively, the Press Information Bureau is one of the media units working under the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting, Government of India. It is the nodal agency for public communication and media relations for the entire Union Government of India (though some organizations have their own outfits to look after their specialized media and publicity functions, e.g. Ministry of External Affairs and the armed forces).

With headquarters in New Delhi, it now has a nation-wide network of 8 regional offices and 34 branch offices.[6] Over 60 information officers are presently in position in the Bureau. The Bureau has Information Officers attached to different Ministries, constitutional bodies and autonomous organizations of the Government of India. They are responsible for information dissemination and unpaid publicity for those organizations.

The Bureau issues press releases, features, photographs, infographics and videos for giving information to electronic, print and web media on the following matters:

  • Government Planning
  • Government Policies
  • Programme Initiatives
  • Achievements of the Government

The Bureau has a Press Facilitation unit for press accreditation and facilitation during press conferences and events that are open for the media. At present, about 2500 editors, correspondents, camerapersons and technicians from print, radio, television and web media are accredited.

Its website contains archives of press releases issued by it since 1947. It has also launched the mobile version of its website[7] and a mobile app.

In November 2019, the PIB set up a fact-checking unit to check government related news.[8][9]

List of Heads/Government Spokespersons
No. Principal Information Officers From To
1. Mr. J. Hennessy April 1938 December 1941
2. Shri J. Natrajan January 1942 July 1945
3. Mr. Pothan Joseph July 1945 December 1946
4. Shri A. S. Iyenger October 1946 December 1948
5. Shri B. L. Sharma February 1949 March 1954
6. Shri M. L. Bhardwaj March 1954 October 1955
7. Shri T. R. V. Chari October 1955 July 1961
8. Shri M. L. Bhardwaj July 1961 May 1963
9. Shri L. R. Nair May 1963 January 1966
10. Shri M. L. Bhardwaj January 1966 July 1971
11. Shri H. J. D'Penha July 1971 June 1974
12. Dr. A. R. Baji December 1974 August 1976
13. Shri L. Dayal August 1976 September 1977
14. Shri G. S. Bhargava June 1978 April 1980
15. Shri Wilfred Lazarus April 1980 April 1982
16. Shri U. C. Tiwari April 1982 May 1985
17. Shri I. Rammohan Rao June 1985 January 1992
18. Shri S. Narendra February 1992 December 1998
19. Smt N. J. Krishna December 1998 October 2002
20. Shri Sahab Singh November 2002 February 2004
21. Dr. Shakuntala Mahawal March 2004 July 2005
22. Smt Deepak Sandhu August 2005 January 2006
No. Principal Directors General

(Media & Communication)

 From To
1. Smt Deepak Sandhu February 2006 December 2008
2. Dr. Umakant Mishra December 2008 March 2009
3. Smt Neelam Kapur April 2009 August 2014
4. Shri Frank Noronha August 2014 April 2018
5. Shri Sitanshu Kar May 2018 September 2019
6. Shri K. S. Dhatwalia October 2019 February 2021
7. Shri Jaideep Bhatnagar March 2021 Present

See also

Notes
  1. The Meitei language (officially called Manipuri) versions of the press releases are presently available in Bengali script, but there is plan of changing the script into Meitei script (Manipuri script) in due course of time.

References
  1. "PIB Home Page". PIB official Portal.
  2. "Sonia, PM to launch Rs 60 cr media centre". The Hindustan Times. 24 August 2013. Archived from the original on 24 August 2013. Retrieved 14 September 2013.
  3. "PIB press releases in Manipuri : 25th nov15 ~ E-Pao! Headlines". e-pao.net. Retrieved 23 January 2023.
  4. "PIB website has news in regional languages now". KanglaOnline. Retrieved 23 January 2023.
  5. "Satyendra Prakash named new PIB DG". PIB.
  6. "About PIB". PIB Mumbai official Portal.
  7. "PIB launches mobile version of its website". The Economic Times. Press Trust of India. 31 August 2012. Archived from the original on 22 September 2013.
  8. "Press Information Bureau sets up unit to combat fake news related to government". The Hindu. PTI. 29 November 2019. ISSN 0971-751X. Retrieved 30 November 2019.
  9. "PIB establishes checking unit to combat fake news against government on social media". The Economic Times. 28 November 2019. Retrieved 30 November 2019.
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