The Press Information Bureau, commonly abbreviated as PIB, is a nodal agency of the Government of India under the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. Based in National Media Centre, New Delhi, 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, Odia, 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 Republic of India.
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).
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 Professor L.F. Rushbrook Williams of Allahabad University who was designated 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 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 function 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 eight regional offices and 34 branch offices. 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 and a mobile app.
In November 2019, the PIB set up a fact-checking unit to check government related news.
Heads/government spokespersons No.Principal information officersFromTo1.Mr. J. Hennessy April 1938December 19412.Shri J. NatrajanJanuary 1942July 19453.Mr. Pothan JosephJuly 1945December 19464.Shri A. S. IyengerOctober 1946December 19485.Shri B. L. SharmaFebruary 1949March 19546.Shri M. L. BhardwajMarch 1954October 19557. Shri T. R. V. ChariOctober 1955July 19618. Shri M. L. BhardwajJuly 1961May 19639. Shri L. R. NairMay 1963January 196610.Shri M. L. BhardwajJanuary 1966July 197111. Shri H. J. D'PenhaJuly 1971June 197412. Dr. A. R. BajiDecember 1974August 197613. Shri L. DayalAugust 1976September 197714.Shri G. S. BhargavaJune 1978April 198015. Shri Wilfred LazarusApril 1980 April 198216. Shri U. C. TiwariApril 1982May 198517.Shri Inna Rammohan RaoJune 1985January 199218.Shri S. NarendraFebruary 1992December 199819.Smt N. J. KrishnaDecember 1998October 200220.Shri Sahab SinghNovember 2002February 200421. Dr. Shakuntala MahawalMarch 2004July 200522.Smt Deepak SandhuAugust 2005January 2006 +No.Principal Directors General (Media & Communication)FromTo1.Smt Deepak SandhuFebruary 2006December 20082.Dr. Umakant MishraDecember 2008March 20093. Smt Neelam KapurApril 2009August 20144.Shri Frank NoronhaAugust 2014April 20185.Shri Sitanshu KarMay 2018September 20196.Shri K. S. DhatwaliaOctober 2019February 20217. Shri Jaideep BhatnagarMarch 2021July 20228.Shri Satyendra PrakashAugust 202228 February 20239.Shri Rajesh MalhotraMarch 2023August 202310.Shri Manish DesaiSeptember 2023March 202411.Smt Sheyphali B. SharanApril 2024June 202412.Dhirendra K. OjhaJuly 2024July 202513.Anupama BhatnagarAugust 2025Incumbent
See also Ministry of Information and Broadcasting Prasar Bharati
Notes
References
External links
History of PIB