What is nicnet?
Objective of National Informatics Centre(NIC)The long-term objective of the National Informatics Centre, as approved bythe Planning Commission, Ministry of Finance and the earstwhile ElectronicsCommission, had been to establish the feasibility of a system for the provisionof detailed information to government ministries and agencies to assist them inmaking decisions relating to the country's economic and social development,planning and programme implementation. NIC was set up with the forementionedobjective to promote economic, social, scientific and technologicalactivities, and also for macro-economic adjustment programme of theGovernment, through the applications of Information Technology(I.T.).Mandate of NICNIC was set up in 1975-76 with the following mandate.?? provide informatics services to various user agencies in Government?? play a promotional role in creating appropriate decision-support informationsystems in Government?? act as a focal point for developing, managing and operating informationsystem in Government?? act as a focal point for development of methodologies for designing andimplementing national information systems and data management techniques?? act as a focal point for maintaining inventories of primary da ta and computerbasedsystems for data collection and dissemination?? train users in information systems, data management and computingTechniquesCreation of the National Informatics CentreThe Electronics Commission(earstwhile) and the Department ofElectronics(now Department of Inforation Technology) put forward aproposal to UNDP for assistance to set up a National Computer Centre inDelhi for building up national data bases, developing the methodologies forutilising these, and for defining the various options and paths in decisionmakingat the national level. A UNDP team visited Delhi in March 1975 tostudy the proposal. The UNDP agreed to fund the National Informatics Centreto the extent of US $4.4 million for the procurement of a large computersystem (costing approximately US $3.3 million), other hardware, training, theservices of experts, etc.In view of this, actions were taken to proceed with the preliminarywor k relating to the setting-up of National Informatics Centre so that whenUNDP financial assistance becomes available and the major hardwarecommissioned, the Centre can get on with its work on an expeditious basis.NIC was a plan project administered and implemented by the Information,Planning and Analysis Group (IPAG) of the earstwhile ElectronicsCommission in its initial stages.Evolution of NICStarting as a small programme under an external stimulus by an UNDP projectin early 1970s, NIC started functioning in 1977 and since then it has grownincrementally and later exponentially as one of India's major S&TOrganisations promoting Informatics-led Development, which has helped tousher in the required transformation to cope with the trends in the newmillennium.In 1984-85, the Government decided to extend the NIC services toState Governments, Union Territory Administrations and DistrictAdministrations in the country. It signed Memorandum of Understandingwith the State Governments/Union Terriotry Adminstrations. For planningand introduction of computerization, NIC State Coordination Committees andNIC District Coordination Committees were set up.A satellite based computer communication network called NICNET was set upin C-Band and using CDMA technology. Computer and VSAT infrastructurewas set up in al the State Governemnt/UT Administrations Secretariats andDistrict Administrations. NICNET enabled exchange of information amongCentral Governments, State Governments/Union Territory Adminsitrationsand District Administrations. During the year 1996-97, NIC intrduced Kubandbased VSAT technology. In the ensuing years, it replaced CDMAtechnology VSAT with FTDMA and IPA technology VSATs to provide highspeed exchange of information on NICNET and Internet services.NIC has played an important role of an activecatalyst and facilitator ininformatics development programme in Governments at the national, states,district & sub-district levels, during the last 27 years which enabledGovernmental-agencies to take policy decisions to create knowledge societies- societies that can exploit knowledge to derive competitive advantage usingthe opportunities provided by digital technology. NIC has been instrumental inout into India i.e. by implementing IT applications in various sectors of Indianeconomy.The Organisational ProfileThe organizational set up of NIC encompasses its Headquarters at New Delhi,State Units in all the 28 State capitals and 7 Union Territory Headquarters andDistrict Centres in almost all the Districts of India. In North-Eastern statesand in Jammu & Kashmir, I.T. infrastructure has been strengthened by way ofsetting up of Community Information Centres(CICs) at sub-distirct/blocklevels. The Organization employs a large pool of efficient technicalmanpower.There are a number of Application Divisions which provide total InformaticsSupport to the Ministries and Departments of the Central Government. NICcomputer cells are located in almost all the Ministry Bhawans of the CentralGovernment and Apex Offices including the Prime Minister's Office, theRashtrapati Bhawan and the Parliament House. Apart from this, NIC hasvarious Resource and Infrastructure Divisions at the Headquarters whichspecialize into different areas of IT and facilitate the Application Divisions aswell as other NIC Centres in providing state-of-the-art services to theGovernment agencies including Public Sector Government Undertakings.
