Nomination Category: Government to Citizens Initiative of the Year Name of Project/Initiative: http://india.gov.

in Details of Applicant (filing the nomination): Name: D. P. Misra Address: National Portal Secretariat 3rd Floor, National Informatics Centre, A-Block, CGO Complex, Lodhi Road City: New Delhi State: Delhi Country: India Zip Code: 110003 Telephone No: 91-011-24363692 Email Id: dpmisra@nic.in Details of Project/Initiative Implementing Agency: Name of the Organization: Data Centre & Web Services Division of NIC Address: National Portal Secretariat 3rd Floor, National Informatics Centre, A-Block, CGO Complex, Lodhi Road City: New Delhi State: Delhi Country: India ZIP Code: 110003 HOD: Ms. Neeta Verma Telephone No: +91-011-24363692

 Email Id: neeta@nic.in Details of Programme/Project/Initiative: Brief Description: Governments globally are embracing Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs), especially the Internet and the World Wide Web, to reinvent their routine Government functioning, its processes and service dissemination methods. As of today, there are over 7000 Indian Government Websites and Portals existing in the Internet Space and this number is constantly on the rise.

It is imperative to ensure that a common citizen is able to access the information and services provided by these numerous websites in the most convenient and friendly manner. And, this is where the National Portal of India (india.gov.in) has emerged as a tool to provide the much needed single window access to the plethora of online information and services by the Indian Government. The NPI team structure includes Ms. Neeta Verma, HoD, Ms. Alka Mishra, Sr. Technical Director, Mr. Mohan Das, Technical Director, Mr. D. P. Misra, Principal Systems Analyst, Mr. T. P. Muthu, Principal Systems Analyst, Mr. Lokesh Joshi, Principal Systems Analyst, Mr. Vir Vikram, Principal Systems Analyst, Mr. Narendra Jain, Systems Analyst and Mr. Sandeep Gupta, Scientific Officer.

Why was the project started: In the past few years, a large number of websites belonging to various constituents of the government have been published, offering a lot of information and services to the citizens. However, these websites follow different Technology Standards, Design Lay-outs and Navigation Architecture leading to a lot of inconvenience at the citizens end and requires a lot of learning on their part to even access these services, thus defeating the very purpose of the initiative.

Need was felt to establish a one-stop source for all the government information and services. This led to the genesis of National Portal of India a Gateway to over 7000 Indian Government websites facilitating a single window web based access to government information and services.

Objectives:

To establish a one point source for availability of information about any Government of India constituent, be it the Central Government Ministries, Departments, State/UT Governments, Districts, Panchayats or even organizations and affiliates, for the benefit of the citizens, businesses and other target audience. National Portal Infrastructure will help facilitate implementation of various e-governance initiatives by the Government. Implementation of National Portal in the long run shall also define standards for publishing the information and electronic delivery of government services.

 Publication of information and documents on the Net and online delivery of citizen services shall also lead to improved efficiency in service delivery, enhanced transparency, reduced corruption and increased public participation - all key objectives of good governance.

Target Group: Citizens of India (home and abroad, across all social, financial strata)

Geographical Reach: Pan-India and Global

Date from which the project became operational: November 10th, 2005

Is the project still operational: Yes

Ten points that make the project innovative:

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In its endeavor to cater to most of citizens' needs, the NPI plays host to over 1900 services from various states/ministries/ departments which are all packaged under the 'How Do I' section of the portal. It is also a central repository for Government Forms, Documents, Acts, Rules, schemes and Policies. The mammoth wealth of information available on a portal has been classified on the basis of Sectors, Target Audience (Citizen, Government, and Overseas), Life-Cycle and Geographical Location for the benefit and clear understanding of the users. The information in the Portal has not only been well classified into distinct modules, but also interlinked at relevant places to provide the visitor with a holistic view with a clearly defined Information Architecture. The National Portal has provided a single window gateway to over 7000 Indian government websites, a feat that is unique in its own right. The National Portal of India has also turned out to be an effective medium for the participation of common citizens in the process of governance since they are encouraged to voice their opinion through various feedback options on the NPI. Apart from few other initiatives, the most recent is to invite Public Opinion on National Testing Scheme, the unified competitive examination system for admission into Science and Engineering Colleges. The National Portal has as of now approximately over 78,000 registered users availing regular Services provided therein with an increase of around 10% per year.

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With over 13 lakh visitor per month, it reaches to 24 lakh hits per day (approx.) the portal is scaling new heights of popularity and visibility. The Portal receives overwhelming feedback on a daily basis through its various sections, which actively solicit suggestions, complaints and comments from the visitors. The highly convenient and user-friendly navigation has been built from the perspective of the common citizen, rather than the government. The portals design also provides ample scope for customization and personalization.

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Five achievements of the project:

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The National Portal of India is a much-decorated web entity. It has won the CSI-Nihilent Award (2009), the Best Paper Award at the 6th International Conference on E-Governance (ICEG2008), Best System Demonstration Award at the 9th International Digital Government Research Conference in Montreal (2008) and the Silver Icon Award in the Best Website Category at the 10th National E-Governance Conference (2007) amongst others. India.gov.in was also a finalist at the Stockholm Challenge, 2008 (Public Administration Category). NPI has been first government website designed to be accessible to all users irrespective of device in use, technology or ability. It has been built, with an aim, to provide maximum accessibility and usability to its visitors. As a result, this Portal can be viewed from a variety of devices, such as web-enabled mobile devices, WAP phones, PDAs, and so on. Toward its aim of being standards compliant and follow principles of usability and universal design, the NPI has been designed using XHTML 1.0 Transitional and meets priority 2 (level AA) of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 laid down by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). The National Portal of India fulfills the requirements of Software Product Evaluation and Certification Scheme of the STQC Directorate Department of Information Technology. This certification of approval covers three ISO standards, namely ISO 25051, ISO/IEC 9126-1 and ISO/IEC TR 9126-2. The National Portal of India has acted as a catalyst to help leverage other ICT initiatives like the Guidelines for Indian Government Websites (GIGW), Sixth Central Pay Commission Public Consultation Process, NGO Participation System, the Central Information Commission Online (CIC Online) and the most recent Public Opinion on National Testing Scheme (NTS).

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Five key challenges faced while implementing the project/initiative, and how they were overcome:

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An entity of such magnum proportions, involving such huge volumes of content, needs very dedicated scrutiny and timely update. Keeping the information uploaded on the NPI current, relevant and up-to-date proved to be a task of the highest order of difficulty. The process of development and delivery of large volumes of content as was the case with the NPI can easily fall prey to haphazard and disjointed dissemination, which consequentially results in an inconsistent user experience. Thus a detailed content architecture was painstakingly devised to ensure uniformity of display. NPI was not conceived or positioned as a stand alone entity but as a National level content repository, whose scope encompasses all online content generated across levels of administration. It was thus required that the content generated by any Government entity - be it a Ministry, Department or a State Government - be stored at a single central repository at the backend in the proper format, while also being able to be displayed in different ways as per the contextual requirements of different websites and portals. Making Institutional arrangement for uninterrupted content flow right from the source was the key challenge, as was to enforce syncing of all the content posted simultaneously in Hindi which has now been made a mandatory activity. National Portal Coordinators (NPC) have been nominated by each of the Ministry/Department (at the level of Jt. Secretary and above) and State/UT (at the level of State IT Secretary). NIC Coordinators for the National Portal (NCNP) has also been nominated from each of the Ministry/Department and State/UT to help and advice on technical aspects to NPCs. Wherever content flow is enormous a Content Service Provider (CSP), a private entity, has been engaged to assist NPC and NCNP. Content so submitted by these sources are being moderated at two levels before going live. Making the portal universally accessible to all users, irrespective of device in use, technology or ability, was another very crucial aim that was achieved with much fanfare and success. NPI meets priority 2 (level AA) of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 laid down by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C).

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Five ways the project/initiative can serve as a model that can be replicated or adapted by others:

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The National Portal has been framed out with some very basic components, which makes it easily replicable. NPI has been deployed with state-of-the-art technology architecture based on widely accepted web standards and features of security, interoperability, device independence and universal accessibility. The Generic Information Architecture and Content Framework (CFW) has been thoroughly worked out and can be adapted by large number of government constituents. CFW has been further customized for state portal framework (http://spf.india.gov.in) and also for district level portals. The policies included herein namely Contribution, Moderation and Approval Policy (CMAP), Content Review Policy (CRP) and the Content Exit and Archival Policy (CAEP) are detailed tools that will greatly aid the development and maintenance of a web entity.

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The web-based Content Management System (CMS) comprises of a well-defined workflow to facilitate contribution of content from the point of its generation, with multiple level moderation constituted within. Features like role-based access, accounting, logging and auditing make the CMS thorough, sturdy and replicable in a variety of projects. The Guidelines for Indian Government Websites (GIGW) initiative by the National Informatics Centre (NIC) is a unique instructional repository that address the entire lifecycle of a website, web portal/application - right from its conceptualization to design, development, maintenance and management. These guidelines have not only been adapted by Department of Administrative reforms and Public Grievances (DARPG), but also stand included in the Central Secretariat Manual of Office Procedure (CSMOP) The National Portal has provided a readily available base infrastructure to the government departments/ organizations for launching their new e-governance services for the benefits of citizens, businesses and other stakeholders. It has already been used by many departments.

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Five points to elaborate on the scalability of the project/initiative:

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India Portal is up and running 24*7*365, and the services are available round the clock for the Citizens of India, Registered Users and the Designated Content contributors of NPI across the country. Any Content which is contributed by the authorized users of the Content Management System of India Portal is published at http://india.gov.in within 72 hours, after undergoing the process of creation, approval, moderation and thereafter publishing. In case any URL is reported to be broken ie bad links are removed within one working day. Multi-layer security infrastructure, based completely on Open Source Technologies (LAMP), facilitates interoperability while ensuring safety and reliability. The robust infrastructure and technology know-how ensures smooth and uninterrupted delivery of results to millions of stakeholders simultaneously on the Net via a highly-effective load management strategy. The Data Centre is an ISO 27001 (Information Security Management System) certified set up, with a Disaster Recovery Centre located at Hyderabad. This allows for a sturdy physical and technical environment, which ensures for the users the reliability and flexibility needed to support the mission-critical system or application operation needs of india.gov.in. India.gov.in comprises of a Clustered Infrastructure, with different servers allocated to different stages of content production and publishing. The Development Server plays host to initial drafts of content meant to be uploaded on to the NPI. This is then taken on to the Staging Server, which is an exact replica of the live portal. After thorough scrutiny and numerous levels of

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moderation, the final version of information is uploaded on to the Production Server in order to beam it live on the National Portal of India.