National Informatics Centre
AbbreviationNIC
Formation1976 (1976)
TypeDigital Information
HeadquartersNew Delhi
Location
  • Pan India
Region served
India
Official language
English and Hindi
Director General
Shri Amit Agrawal[1]
Parent organisation
Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology
Budget
₹11.5 billion (US$140 million) [2]
Staff
3500 (April 2023)[3]
Websitenic.in
ASN
Traffic Levels70–80 Gbit/s

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.

History

The 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.[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

National 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

In 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

Kapil Sibal inaugurating the ‘National Cloud’ MeghRaj in February 2014

National 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.[20][21]

Centres of Excellence

The 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.

National Portal of India

NIC maintains the National Portal of India. The portal contains the Constitution of India,[22] and has a design objective to a single point to access the information and services of the Government of India.[9]

References

  1. ↑ https://www.nic.in/dg-nic/
  2. 1 2 Government (2019), p. 324.
  3. 1 2 Agarwal, Surabhi (28 May 2018). "NIC launches fourth data centre in Bhubaneswar" – via The Economic Times.
  4. ↑ Rituraj (2018), p. 2.
  5. ↑ Prabhu (2012), pp. 45–47.
  6. ↑ Malwad (1996), pp. 36–39.
  7. 1 2 3 "District Offices". National Informatics Centre. Archived from the original on 8 November 2019. Retrieved 8 November 2018.
  8. ↑ Staff (29 May 2013). "Padma Bhushan N. Seshagiri, founder director-general of NIC, dies at 73". India Today. Retrieved 5 November 2019.
  9. 1 2 "About us — National Portal of India". www.india.gov.in. Archived from the original on 9 August 2019. Retrieved 6 November 2019.
  10. ↑ Sadagopan, Sowmyanarayanan (22 March 2017). "Digital India over the decades". Voice&Data.
  11. ↑ Bhattacharya (2006), pp. 250–252.
  12. ↑ "NIC SERVICES | National Informatics Centre". www.nic.in. Retrieved 22 June 2023.
  13. ↑ Bhagavan (1997), p. 112.
  14. ↑ "NICNET | National Informatics Centre". www.nic.in. Retrieved 22 June 2023.
  15. ↑ 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.
  16. ↑ Staff (14 January 2019). "Ravi Shankar Prasad inaugurates NIC Command & Control Centre to support cloud, data infra". Express Computer.
  17. ↑ "Shri Kapil Sibal Launches 'National Cloud' Under 'MeghRaj'".
  18. ↑ "Kapil Sibal suggests NIC forms cloud service JV with private firms".
  19. ↑ "Jio Platforms bags Rs 350 crore deal to run National Informatics Centre's cloud services".
  20. ↑ "Jio Platforms bags Rs 350 crore deal to run National Informatics Centre's cloud services".
  21. ↑ "Jio Platforms gets Rs 350 crore deal to run NIC's cloud services for 5 yrs".
  22. ↑ "National Informatics Centre portal". Thomson Reuters Practical Law. Archived from the original on 6 November 2019. Retrieved 6 November 2019.

Sources


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