MeitY (Ministry of Electronics and IT)

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) is the central government ministry responsible for formulating and implementing policy on IT, electronics, internet governance, and digital government. For companies selling IT products and services to government, MeitY's policies, on Make in India, domestic manufacturing preference, cloud adoption, cybersecurity standards, and data localisation, directly shape what can be sold, at what price preference, and under what technical conditions.

What is MeitY (Ministry of Electronics and IT) in government procurement?

MeitY functions as both a policymaker and a direct procuring entity. As a policymaker, it issues the orders and guidelines that other ministries must follow in IT procurement, including the Preferential Market Access (PMA) policy for electronics, the Policy on Adoption of Open Source Software, the Electronic Waste Management Rules, and the National Data Governance Framework. As a procurer, MeitY funds and manages major national digital infrastructure programmes, DigiLocker, Government e-Marketplace (GeM), UMANG, Co-Win, and the MeghRaj Government Cloud, procuring technology services to build and operate these.

MeitY's most commercially significant policy for IT vendors is the Preferential Market Access (PMA) for Domestically Manufactured Electronic Products. This policy reserves specific product categories (personal computers, tablets, printers, servers, networking equipment, CCTV systems, and others) for domestically manufactured products in government procurement. A foreign-manufactured desktop computer cannot be procured by central government unless there is an insufficient domestic supply. Companies with electronics manufacturing in India, whether under the PLI scheme or otherwise, benefit commercially from this policy.

The Ministry operates through several implementing agencies that are significant IT procurers in their own right: NIC (National Informatics Centre) provides IT services to central government; STQC (Standardisation, Testing and Quality Certification) handles testing and quality assurance; NIELIT (National Institute of Electronics and IT) provides training and some IT services; and C-DAC (Centre for Development of Advanced Computing) develops indigenous software and HPC systems.

MeitY also sets cybersecurity requirements for government IT procurement through CERT-In (Computer Emergency Response Team India). Critical government IT systems must comply with CERT-In guidelines, and the vendors supplying those systems must have specific security credentials.

Why it matters for bidders

For IT companies targeting government, MeitY's policy landscape determines competitive positioning. Companies with domestic manufacturing or assembly operations in India, under the PLI for Large Scale Electronics Manufacturing or IT Hardware PLI scheme, qualify as preferred domestic suppliers and gain access to procurements that exclude foreign products. The PMA preference can be the difference between being eligible for a tender and being excluded.

For IT services companies, MeitY's major programme procurement, NIC projects, UMANG service expansions, state data centre upgrades, and e-governance applications, represents the highest-value IT services contracts in central government. These are typically QCBS tenders with high technical weights, favouring companies with relevant project experience, certified personnel, and domain knowledge of government systems.

Startups in the govtech space benefit from MeitY's dedicated programmes: the Startup India Digital Innovation Alliance, the MeitY-NASSCOM Startup Hub, and procurement set-asides for startup-developed solutions in specific digital governance categories. Getting MeitY recognition as a preferred technology partner for a digital programme creates a reference that opens state government doors as well.

Example

MeitY floats a QCBS tender through NIC for developing and operating a unified document verification platform for central government departments. The scope includes a 3-year development and 5-year operation phase, worth approximately Rs 180 crore. Technical evaluation covers: relevant experience of similar government platforms (40%), technical approach and architecture (35%), key personnel qualifications (25%). A technology company with prior experience on DigiLocker and Aadhaar API integration submits a strong technical bid scoring 83/100. The second bidder scores 76. Their financial bids are opened and the combined QCBS scores (70% technical, 30% financial) determine the award. The 83-score firm wins despite quoting slightly higher, the quality of the technical approach earns them the contract.

Key rules / thresholds

The Compulsory Registration Order (CRO) under the Electronics and IT Goods (Requirement for Compulsory Registration) Order 2012 mandates BIS registration for 48 categories of IT and electronic products sold in India, including to government. The PMA order is updated periodically, companies should check the latest version on MeitY's website before bidding, as new categories are regularly added to the preference list. All government IT systems handling sensitive data must comply with ISO 27001 and CERT-In's Information Security Guidelines for Central Government Organisations.