National Informatics Centre (NIC) is a premier S&T organization of the Government of India in the field of Informatics Services and Information Technology (IT) applications, and has been instrumental in steering Information and Communication Technology (ICT) applications in Government Departments at Central, State and Districts, facilitating improvement in government services, wider transparency in government functions, and improvement in decentralised planning and management. To facilitate this, NIC has established a nationwide ICT Network - NICNET - with gateway nodes at about 53 Central Government Departments, 35 State/UT Secretariats, and about 600 District Collectorates, for IT services. The Government has designated the nation-wide Computer-Communication Network, NICNET, as the Government Network.

NIC was set upwith the objective to promote economic, social, scientific and technological activities, and also for macro-economic adjustment programme of the government, through the applications of IT.

The organizational set up of NIC encompasses its Headquarters at New Delhi, State Units in all the 28 State capitals and 7 Union Territory Headquarters and District centres in almost all the Districts of India. The Organization employs a large pool of software professionals.

At the NIC Headquarters, a large number of Application Divisions exist which provide total Informatics Support to the Ministries and Departments of the Central Government. NIC computer cells are located in almost all the Ministry Bhawans of the Central Government and Apex Offices including the Prime Minister’s Office, the Rashtrapati Bhawan and the Parliament House

NIC Headquarters is based in New Delhi. At NIC Headquarters, a large number of Application Divisions exist which provide total Informatics Support to the Ministries and Departments of the Central Government. NIC computer cells are located in almost all the Ministry Bhawans of the Central Government and Apex Offices including the Prime Minister’s Office, the Rashtrapati Bhawan and the Parliament House. Apart from this, NIC has various Resource Divisions at the Headquarters which specialize into different areas of IT and facilitate the Application Divisions as well as other NIC Centres in providing state-of-the-art services to the Govt.

NIC is offering network services over C-band and Ku-band (TDMA, FTDMA, SCPC & Satellite broadband) VSATs, Wireless Metropolitan Area Networks (MANs) and Local Area Networks (LANs) with NICNET gateway for Internet resources, to promote economic, social,  scientific and technological activities, and also for macro-economic adjustment programme of the Government.

NIC has played an important role of an "active" catalyst and "facilitator" in informatics development programme in Governments at the national, state and district levels, during the last 25 years, which made them take policy decisions to create "knowledge societies"  societies that can exploit knowledge to derive competitive advantage using the opportunities provided by "digital technology". NIC has been instrumental in adopting Information Technology and Communication Technology "to reach out into India" (i.e. by implementing IT applications in Social & Public administrations), which are discernible from the following developments:

• Central Government Informatics Development Programme - A strategic decision to overcome "Digital Divide" in Central Government Departments and Ministries during the Fifth Plan Period (i.e. 1972-77);
• NICNET gateway for Internet/Intranet Access and Resources Sharing in Central Government Ministries and Departments in 1980s and 1990s;
• IT in Social Applications and Public Administrations;
• State Government Informatics Development Programme - A strategic decision to overcome "Digital Divide" in Central and 32 State Governments/UT Administrations, during the Seventh Plan Period (i.e. 1985-1990);
• NICNET - A first of its kind among the developing countries, using the state-of- the-art Ku-band VSAT technology- facilitates (i) decentralised planning, (ii) improvement in government services, (iii) wider transparency of national and local governments and improving their accountability to the people;
• DISNIC - A NICNET Based District Government Informatics Programme - A strategic decision in 1985 to overcome "Digital Divide" in 540 District Administrations;

• Reaching out into India during 1985-90, even before the arrival of "Internet" Technology, to 540 districts of the Country, which is a land of diversity with different types of terrain, various Agro-climatic conditions, different levels of socio-economic conditions, and varied levels of regional development, etc.

As a major step in bringing in e-governance, NIC implements the following "minimum agenda" of e-Governance, as announced by the Central Government:

• Internet/Intranet Infrastructure (PCs, Office Productivity Tools, Portals  on Business of Allocation and Office Procedures) up-to Section Officers level
• IT Empowerment of Officers /officials (Training)
• IT enabled Services
• G2G - Government -to-Government Portal
• G2B - Government-to-Business Portal
• G2C - Government-to-Citizen Portal
• G2E - Government-to-Employees Portal
• IT Plans for Sectoral Development
• Business Process Re-engineering

Starting as a small programme under an external stimulus by an UNDP project, NIC has grown incrementally and later exponentially as one of India's major S&T Orgnaisation promoting "Informatics-led Development", which has helped to usher in the required transformation to cope with the trends in the new millennium.

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 Autonomous Organizations/Institutions

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