The National Informatics Centre (NIC) is a premier Indian government department under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY).[4][5][6] The NIC provides infrastructure, IT Consultancy, IT Services including but not limited to architecture, design, development and implementation of IT Systems to Central Government Departments and State Governments thus enabling delivery of government services to Citizens and pioneering the initiatives of Digital India.[7] Research for betterment of citizens and Government department and organizations is also carried out by scientists working in NIC .It recruits various scientists and Scientific/Technical Assistants almost every three years and many NIT and IIT graduates have joined this premier organisation in past few decades. NIC endeavours to cater to ICT needs at all levels of governance for making last mile delivery of Government services.
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Abbreviation | NIC |
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Formation | 1976 |
Type | Digital Information |
Headquarters | New Delhi |
Location |
|
Region served | India |
Official language | English and Hindi |
Director General | Amit Agrawal[1] |
Parent organisation | Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology |
Budget | ₹11.5 billion (US$140 million) [2] |
Staff | 3500 (April 2023)[3] |
Website | www |
ASN | |
Traffic Levels | 70–80 Gbit/s |
History
editThe National Informatics Centre (NIC) was established in 1976 by Narasimaiah Seshagiri under the Electronics Commission of India and later moved under the Planning Commission of India before coming under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY - Hindi: इलेक्ट्रॉनिकी और सूचना प्रौद्योगिकी मंत्रालय). Additional Secretary Narasimaiah Seshagiri was the first to introduce a network system in India called NICNET.[8][9] It is the technology partner of the Government of India and has been credited for helping the Indian government embrace IT in the 1990s[10] and has also helped disseminate e-governance to the masses[weasel words].[11]
It had an annual budget of ₹11.5 billion (US$140 million) for the year 2018–19.[2] Most of this is spent in providing free services to various Government Departments.
Infrastructure and services
editNational Informatics Centre Services include:[12]
- Digital Government Research Centre (DGRC)
- Government Local Area Networks (LANs)
- Video Conferencing
- National Knowledge Network (NKN)
- Mobile Competency Centre
- Email & Messaging
- Remote Sensing & GIS
- Webcast
- Domain Registration
- National Cloud
- Command and Control
- NICNET
- Data Centre
- Security
- Block Chain Technology
NIC's Network, "NICNET",[13] facilitates the institutional linkages with the Ministries/Departments of the Central Government, state Governments and District administrations of India.[14] NIC is noted for being the primary constructor of e-Government applications.[15] It also manages the National Knowledge Network.
Data centers and offices
editIn 2018, NIC opened its fourth data center in Bhubaneshwar to complement its existing data centers in New Delhi, Hyderabad and Pune.[3] In addition to the National Data Centres, NIC offices include Head Quarters situated in New Delhi and has State Centres in all 36 states and Union territories.[16][7] This is supplemented by 741 district offices.[7] With the ICT infrastructure, NIC District Centres are playing a pivotal role right from executing various projects under e-Governance and Digital India initiatives to day-to-day ICT-driven technical support to consultancy to various departments in the district.
National cloud
editNational Informatics Centre developed GI Cloud named as MeghRaj. This project was launched by Government of India for cloud computing in February 2014.[17][18] MeghRaj Cloud offers a variety of service model like Platform as a Service (PaaS), Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Software as a Services (Saas), Virtual servers, Kubernetes containers, DevOps, etc.[19] In April 2023, Jio Platforms secured a ₹ 350 crore contract to manage and improve the cloud services of National Informatics Centre (NIC) for five years for onsite maintenance at the National Data Centre in Delhi, Pune and Bhubaneswar.[19][20]
Centres of Excellence
editThe following CoE(Centre of Excellence) has been established:
- Artificial Intelligence
- Blockchain Technology
- Microservices
- Data Analytics
- Application Security
NIC established the Centre of Excellence in Artificial Intelligence in 2019 to explore more opportunities for AI applications in governance. In 2020, the Union Government and NIC has launched the Centre of Excellence (CoE) in Blockchain Technology in Bengaluru.
Bharat Maps
editBharat Maps is a web mapping service maintained by the National Informatics Center.[21] The project was implemented in the 2004-09 five-year cycle and the data is derived from Survey of India, Registrar General of India and Indian Space Research Organization.[22] The maps are used by various government departments for official purposes and is also available for the use of consumers.[22]
National Portal of India
editNIC maintains the National Portal of India. The portal contains the Constitution of India,[23] and has a design objective to a single point to access the information and services of the Government of India.[9]
See also
editReferences
edit- ^ "Director General". National Informatics Centre. Retrieved 1 December 2023.
- ^ a b Government of India (2019), p. 324.
- ^ a b Agarwal, Surabhi (28 May 2018). "NIC launches fourth data centre in Bhubaneswar". The Economic Times.
- ^ Rituraj (2018), p. 2.
- ^ Prabhu (2012), pp. 45–47.
- ^ Malwad (1996), pp. 36–39.
- ^ a b c "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.
- ^ a b "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.
- ^ "NIC SERVICES | National Informatics Centre". www.nic.in. Retrieved 22 June 2023.
- ^ Bhagavan (1997), p. 112.
- ^ "NICNET | National Informatics Centre". www.nic.in. Retrieved 22 June 2023.
- ^ 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.
- ^ "Shri Kapil Sibal Launches 'National Cloud' Under 'MeghRaj'".
- ^ "Kapil Sibal suggests NIC forms cloud service JV with private firms". The Economic Times. 4 February 2014.
- ^ a b P, Suraksha (10 April 2023). "Jio Platforms bags Rs 350 crore deal to run National Informatics Centre's cloud services". The Economic Times.
- ^ "Jio Platforms gets Rs 350 crore deal to run NIC's cloud services for 5 yrs".
- ^ "About Bharat Maps". Government of India. Archived from the original on 19 January 2024. Retrieved 1 December 2023.
- ^ a b Bharat Maps (Report). Government of India. Archived from the original on 12 May 2020. Retrieved 1 December 2023.
- ^ "National Informatics Centre portal". Thomson Reuters Practical Law. Archived from the original on 6 November 2019. Retrieved 6 November 2019.
Sources
edit- Bhattacharya, Jaijit (2006). Technology In Government, 1/e. Jaijit Bhattacharya. ISBN 978-81-903397-4-2. 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 978-81-224-0898-0. Retrieved 5 November 2019.
- Prabhu, C. S. R. (2012). E-Governance: Concepts and Case Studies (6 ed.). PHI Learning Pvt. Ltd. ISBN 978-81-203-4557-7.
- 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 978-1-351-39618-9. OCLC 1064971921. Retrieved 5 November 2019.
- "Shri Rajesh Gera joins as Director General, National Informatics Centre (NIC)". Press Information Bureau. 1 June 2022. Retrieved 1 June 2022.