The initiative will lead to the complete overhaul of the following 12 independent organisations and societies, which come under the MIT umbrella: National Informatics Centre (NIC), Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC), Software Technology Park of India (STPI), Department of Electronics Accreditation of Computer Courses (DOEACC), Education and Research Network (ERNET), National Centre for Software Technology (NCST), Society for Applied Microwave Electronics Engineering and Research (SAMEER), Electronic Research and Development Centre (ER&DCI), Centre for Electronics Design & Technology of India (CEDTI), Centre for Materials for Electronics for Technology (C-MET), Centre for Liquid Crystal Research (CLCR) and Export Promotion Council (ESC).

These organisations will now be merged to create four new organisations each with an individual focus area. The four new focus areas, on the basis of which the 12 entities will be merged are: Software, Hardware, Infrastructure, and Education (human resources). The move may also result in the closure of a few entities, which are no longer relevant in the present technological environment.

When contacted by The Financial Express, Information Technology secretary, Mr Vinay Kohli confirmed that the ministry is re-organising all societies into four focus areas.

"India is emerging an a leading IT nation on the world arena and the Government has a responsibility to provide appropriate research support in the area of software, hardware, education and infrastructure to the private sector. These newly-formed organisations will work towards helping the nation in these areas," said Mr Kohli.

"Some of these societies are doing great work in their respective areas but their efforts are not bringing in the desired results, nor do they have proper recognition due to a lack of co-ordination and focus," he said.

The restructuring is being done on the basis of recommendations made by a committee of senior ministry officials, formed three months ago, to look into the relevance of these organisations in the present context. The brief of the committee was to suggest ways to make these organisations more effective and focussed in their activities. The committee has recently submitted its report to the Secretary, Mr Kohli.

The restructuring exercise will blur the boundaries between organisations that have synergies and club them under one entity to make them work towards common objectives. For example, organisations or any of their divisions working in the area of software research and development will be brought together under one composite, bigger, organisation.

Most of these organisations have been inherited by MIT from the erstwhile Department of Electronics (DoE), and rest were brought under its aegis when MIT was formed in October 1999.