National Informatics Centre

History

The National Informatics Centre (NIC) is an Indian government department under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY). Established in 1976, NIC provides information technology infrastructure and support to central and state government ministries, departments, and agencies. It is responsible for the development, maintenance, and operation of government IT systems, networks, and data centres, and supports the delivery of digital services by public authorities.

It had an annual budget of for the year 2018–19. Most of this is spent in providing free services to various government departments.

Infrastructure and services

National Informatics Centre Services include:

• 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
• Blockchain 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 the primary constructor of e-government applications.{{Cite web |url=https://www.altnews.in/gois-national-informatics-centre-also-culpable-abhinav-srivastavs-aadhaar-data-hack-incident/ |title=Is GOI's National Informatics Centre also culpable for Abhinav Srivastav's Aadhaar data hack incident? |date=11 August 2017 |website=AltNews.in |url-status=live

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. 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. This is supplemented by 741 district offices.

National cloud

National Informatics Centre developed GI Cloud named as MeghRaj. This project was launched by Government of India for cloud computing in February 2014. MeghRaj Cloud offers a variety of service model like platform as a service (PaaS), infrastructure as a service (IaaS), software as a service (Saas), virtual servers, Kubernetes containers, dev ops, etc. In April 2023, Jio Platforms secured a contract to manage and improve the cloud services of National Informatics Centre (NIC) for five years for onsite maintenance at various data centres in Delhi, Pune, and Bhubaneswar.

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.

Bharat Maps

Bharat Maps is a web mapping service maintained by the National Informatics Centre. 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. The maps are used by various government departments for official purposes and is also available for the use of consumers.

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.

References

Sources

• {{cite news |title=Shri Rajesh Gera joins as Director General, National Informatics Centre (NIC)

References

1. Network, Elets News. (21 April 2025). "Abhishek Singh Takes Charge as Director General of National Informatics Centre". Elets News Network.
2. "NIC SERVICES {{!}} National Informatics Centre".
3. "NICNET {{!}} National Informatics Centre".
4. Agarwal, Surabhi. (28 May 2018). "NIC launches fourth data centre in Bhubaneswar". The Economic Times.
5. Staff. (14 January 2019). "Ravi Shankar Prasad inaugurates NIC Command & Control Centre to support cloud, data infra".
6. "District Offices". National Informatics Centre.
7. "Shri Kapil Sibal Launches 'National Cloud' Under 'MeghRaj'".
8. (4 February 2014). "Kapil Sibal suggests NIC forms cloud service JV with private firms". The Economic Times.
9. (10 April 2023). "Jio Platforms bags Rs 350 crore deal to run National Informatics Centre's cloud services". The Economic Times.
10. "Jio Platforms gets Rs 350 crore deal to run NIC's cloud services for 5 yrs".
11. "About Bharat Maps". [[Government of India]].
12. "Bharat Maps". [[Government of India]].
13. "National Informatics Centre portal".
14. "About us — National Portal of India".