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ALL ABOUT NATIONAL INFORMATICS CENTRE (NIC)

16th March, 2023 Prelims

National Informatics Centre | Govt. of India

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About

  • The National Informatics Centre (NIC) is an Indian government department under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY).
  • The NIC provides infrastructure, IT Consultancy, IT Services including but not limited to architecting, 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.

 

History

  • The National Informatics Centre (NIC) was established in 1976 by Narasimaiah Seshagiriunder the Electonics Commission of India and later moved under the Planning Commission of India before coming under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology.
  • Additional Secretary Narasimaiah Seshagiri was the first to introduce a network system in India called NICNET. It is the technology partner of the Government of India and has been credited for helping the Indian government embrace IT in the 1990s and has also helped disseminate e-governance to the masses.
  • National Informatics Centre (NIC) has emerged as a "prime builder" of e-Government / e-Governance applications up to the grassroots level as well as a promoter of digital opportunities for sustainable development. NIC, through its ICT Network, "NICNET", has institutional linkages with all the Ministries /Departments of the Central Government, 35 State Governments/ Union Territories, and about 625 District administrations of India.
  • NIC has been instrumental in steering e-Government/e-Governance applications in government ministries/departments at the Centre, States, Districts and Blocks, facilitating improvement in government services, wider transparency, promoting decentralized planning and management, resulting in better efficiency and accountability to the people of India. "Informatics-led-development" programme of the government has been spearheaded by NIC to derive competitive advantage by implementing ICT applications in social & public administration.
  • The following major activities are being undertaken:
  • Setting up of ICT Infrastructure
  • Implementation of National and State Level e-Governance Projects
  • Products and Services
  • Consultancy to the government departments
  • Research and Development
  • Capacity Building

Infrastructure

National Informatics Centre Services include:

  • Government Local Area Networks (LANs)
  • Video Conferencing
  • National Knowledge Network (NKN)
  • Email & Messaging
  • Remote Sensing & GIS
  • Webcast
  • Domain Registration
  • National Cloud
  • Command and Control
  • NICNET
  • Data Centre
  • Security
  • Block Chain Technology
  • NIC's Network, "NICNET", 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.
  • It also manages the National Knowledge Network.

National Portal of India

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