Manish Desai takes over as the new Director General of Press Information Bureau

Manish Desai  took over as the new Principal  Director General of the Press Information Bureau on1 September 2023 after the retirement of Rajesh Malhotra .

A 1989 batch officer of  Indian information service Manish Desai was earlier the head of the Central Bureau of Communications.

Press Information Bureau:

During the First World War a Central Publicity Board was set up under the Home Member of the colonial Government. Later, a Cell was set up in the Home Department in June 1919 under Dr. L.F. Rushbrook Williams, to prepare a yearly report on India, for presentation to the British Parliament.

The  Cell was renamed as  ‘Central Bureau of Information’ and  Dr. L.F. Rushbrook Williams became its Director. The designation of the Head of the Bureau was changed from Director to Principal Information Officer in 1938.

J. Natarajan became the first Indian in 1941 to be appointed as Principal Information Officer.

The name of the Organisation’s name was changed to Press Information Bureau in 1946. 

The PIB comes under the Union Ministry of Information and Broadcasting 

Function of PIB:

Press Information Bureau (PIB) is the nodal agency of the Government of India to disseminate information to the print and electronic media on government policies, programmes, initiatives and achievements. 

It functions as an interface between the government and media and also serves to provide feedback to the government on people’s reaction as reflected in the media.

The PIB Fact Check Unit started its operations in November, 2019 with an objective of acting as a deterrent to creators and disseminators of fake news and  misinformation and to provide people with an easy avenue to report suspicious and questionable information pertaining to the Government of India for fact-checking. It only takes up fake, misinforming and misleading content on social media platforms related to the Government of India, its Ministries, Departments, Public Sector entities etc.

Union Minister for Information and Broadcasting :  Anruag Thakur 

Full Form

PIB : Press Information Bureau