My journey with NIC started way back in 1986 and with deepest feelings of sadness I realise that it is coming to an end this month. However, the journey has been eventful, exciting and immensely satisfying. Several milestones achieved during my years in NIC leave me with a feeling of admiration and pride for the organisation and for its personnel who have made them possible.
I remember the time when I joined; NIC had just shifted its headquarters from Pushpa Bhavan to its present location in CGO Complex. The mainframe Cyber System was being phased out and the supercomputer NEC was being operationalised. We had to access the system from the few terminals installed in each bay. What a change from that time to the present when everybody use desktops / laptops, which are many times more powerful than the so called supercomputer of 1980s! In those days NIC was providing computerisation support to central ministries/ departments in their office automation initiatives. During 1987-88, NIC set up NICNET, NIC’s network services by installing VSATs at the state capitals. Subsequently NICNET was extended to the districts, resulting in ICT led development across the country, bridging digital divides. It has been a major achievement that all ministries/ departments are now using this network to receive useful data from the fields, in many cases on real time basis. National Knowledge Network (NKN), the high-speed digital backbone, connecting all knowledge institutions across the country, complements NICNET in furthering its reach.
During the last decade, focus has shifted from office automation, Management Information Systems (MIS) and Decision Support Systems (DSS) to e-Governance and citizen centric services. During this paradigm shift, NIC has geared up to prepare ICT roadmaps and e-Governance plans for various central ministries and state governments and also help in their implementation. NIC’s evolution from having a few cells in some central ministries to a leading organisation supporting the Government in its major eGovernance initiatives such as MyGov, Meghraj, eTaal, Dial.gov, etc., has been nothing short of phenomenal. NIC, through its offices in all 36 states/ UTs and 650+ districts, provides ICT support to the state and district administration across the country. Furthermore, NIC holds the distinction of being the largest Indian Government email service provider with more than 9 lakh accounts. The data centres of NIC host 8000+ government websites with more than 80 lakh users accessing them every day.
A thousand miles’ traverse begins with one single step. Now that the time has come for me to bid adieu, I am proud of the fact that we rightly took that one step. I am sure that NIC will continue its endeavor to accelerate e-Governance processes at all levels of governance and keep surging ahead.