National Informatics Centre
The National Informatics Centre (NIC) is an attached office under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) in the Indian government.[4][5][6] The NIC provides infrastructure to help support the delivery of government IT services and the delivery of some of the initiatives of Digital India.[7]
Abbreviation | NIC |
---|---|
Formation | 1976 |
Headquarters | New Delhi |
Location |
|
Region served | India |
Director General | Neeta Verma[1] |
Parent organisation | Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology |
Budget | ₹11.5 billion (US$160 million) [2] |
Staff | 4500 (May 2018)[3] |
Website | www.nic.in |
Primary ASN | 4758 |
---|---|
Traffic Levels | 70–80 Gbit/s |
History
The NIC was established in 1976 under the aegis of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology.[8][9]
The NIC is credited with helping the Indian government embrace IT in the 1990s[10] and has also helped disseminate e-governance to the masses.[11]
It had an annual budget of ₹11.5 billion (US$160 million) for the year 2018–19.[2]
In May 2019, the government of India set up the Centre for Smart Governance (CSG), and state governments have since been advised to consult the CSG for IT projects they previously would have consulted the NIC and private firms for. Some claim that government sources have said "NIC is said to be unable to scale up", and Rajeev Chawla, Additional Chief Secretary (e-Governance), was quoted as saying "CSG will be an analogue to NIC".[12]
Infrastructure
Network
The National Informatics Centre (NIC) was established in 1976 under the Planning Commission by the India Government. Then Additional Secretary late Dr. N Shesagiri was the first to introduce a network system in India called NICNET. In 1990, the takeoff by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology NIC's ICT Network, "NICNET",[13] facilitates the institutional linkages with the Ministries/Departments of the Central Government, state Governments and District administrations of India. NIC is noted for being the primary constructor of e-Government applications.[14]
Data centres and offices
In 2018, NIC opened its fourth data centre in Bhubaneshwar to complement its existing data centres in New Delhi, Hyderabad and Pune.[3] In addition to the national data centres there are NIC State Centres in 36 states or Union territories.[15][7] This is supplemented by 708 district offices.[7]
National Portal of India
NIC maintains the National Portal of India. The portal contains the Constitution of India,[16] and claims to have a design objective to a single point to access the information and services of the Government of India.[9]
References
- Agarwal, Surabhi (22 October 2019). "Government may wait for panel report before taking Data Bill to Parliament". The Economic Times. Retrieved 5 November 2019.
- Government (2019), p. 324.
- Agarwal, Surabhi (28 May 2018). "NIC launches fourth data centre in Bhubaneswar" – via The Economic Times.
- Rituraj (2018), p. 2.
- Prabhu (2012), pp. 45–47.
- Malwad (1996), pp. 36–39.
- "District Offices". National Informatics Centre. Archived from the original on 8 November 2019. Retrieved 8 November 2018.
- Staff (29 May 2013). "Padma Bhushan N. Seshagiri, founder director-general of NIC, dies at 73". India Today. Retrieved 5 November 2019.
- "About us — National Portal of India". www.india.gov.in. Archived from the original on 9 August 2019. Retrieved 6 November 2019.
- Sadagopan, Sowmyanarayanan (22 March 2017). "Digital India over the decades". Voice&Data.
- Bhattacharya (2006), pp. 250–252.
- Akshatha, M (9 May 2019). "State plans own centre for smart governance". Economic Time - India Times. Archived from the original on 6 November 2019. Retrieved 6 November 2019.
- Bhagavan (1997), p. 112.
- Venkatanarayan, Anand; Sinha, Pratik; Aravind, Anivar (11 August 2017). "Is GOI's National Informatics Centre also culpable for Abhinav Srivastav's Aadhaar data hack incident?". AltNews.in. Archived from the original on 28 March 2019. Retrieved 6 November 2019.
- Staff (14 January 2019). "Ravi Shankar Prasad inaugurates NIC Command & Control Centre to support cloud, data infra". Express Computer.
- "National Informatics Centre portal". Thomson Reuters Practical Law. Archived from the original on 6 November 2019. Retrieved 6 November 2019.
Sources
- Bhattacharya, Jaijit (2006). Technology In Government, 1/e. Jaijit Bhattacharya. ISBN 9788190339742. Retrieved 5 November 2019.
- Bhagavan, M.R. (1997). New Generic Technologies in Developing Countries. London & New York: Macmillan & St. Martin. ISBN 978-0-333-65049-3.
- Government, of India (2019). Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology — Annual Report 2018–19 (PDF) (Report). Government of India. Archived (PDF) from the original on 5 November 2019. Retrieved 6 November 2019.
- Malwad, N. M. (1996). Digital Libraries: Dynamic Storehouse of Digitized Information : Papers Presented at the SIS '96 15th Annual Convention and Conference 18-20 January, 1996 Bangalore. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 9788122408980. Retrieved 5 November 2019.
- Prabhu, C. S. R. (2012). E-Governance: Concepts and Case Studies (6 ed.). PHI Learning Pvt. Ltd. ISBN 9788120345577.
- Rituraj, Vishalakshi (2018). "e-Governance Plan: Impact and Changes". In Kumar, Puneet; Jain, Vinod Kumar; Pareek, Kumar Sambhav (eds.). The Stances of e-Government: Policies, Processes and Technologies. CRC Press. ISBN 9781351396189. OCLC 1064971921. Retrieved 5 November 2019.