The concept of e-governance is no longer unfamiliar in the present times as governments all over the world have embraced the ubiquitous digital technology to improve government operations and services to the citizens. The different countries, however, are at different maturity stages of e-governance depending upon their resources, infrastructure, extent of ICT penetration and initiatives undertaken towards adopting e-governance. The success of these initiatives depends upon a government’s ability to project itself as a single entity and provide the citizens and businesses with a seamless interface across multifarious services and departments. It has been widely recognized that Interoperability is the key to improve the coherence, and thereby the information flow of the systems maintained by individual ministries and departments. Many countries have evolved or are in the process of evolving a National Interoperability Framework for government business as well as for other sectors. As the premier ICT organization of the Government of India, NIC has significantly contributed to ICT-led developmental functions in various sectors at the Central and State-level Governments for nearly three decades now. Having developed a large number of e-governance applications and generated a huge inventory of ICT solutions, NIC has initiated the development of an Interoperability Framework for E-Governance (IFEG) that comprises a set of policies and technical standards to facilitate interaction between isolated E-Governance applications. Leveraging the recent technical advancements that allow applications to interoperate, regardless of the underlying technologies, IFEG envisages facilitating joined-up service delivery through a single window. As an initial step, the implementation of IFEG standards has already begun in certain National Level Projects. I hope NIC’s approach and initiatives towards IFEG shall prove to be a vital contribution towards the realization of the dream to evolve true e-governance system in India. Dr. N.Vijayaditya Director General The term Interoperability in technological perspective refers to the ability of two or more ICT devices (hardware devices, software components & communication devices) to seamlessly work together. Connectivity and interoperation among computers, among different entities (Governments, businesses, citizens, and individuals), and among software components can increase the flexibility and agility of ICT systems, thus reducing administrative and software costs for Government. They will also reduce the time needed to implement software solutions and e-government services. IFEG (Interoperability Frameworkfor E-Governance) creates a common basis across the government and public sector for the cost-effective delivery of e-governance to the public and other end users. It defines an appropriate set of policies and specifications and guidelines governing the information flow across various Government sector agencies. Included in this domain are interconnectivity, data integration and management, data access and content management. ?| Interoperability Framework (IF): An Interoperability Framework (IF) is defined as a set of standards and policies, which describe the way in which different organizations have agreed to interact with each other. The purpose of Interoperability Framework is to facilitate interoperability with other systems as deemed necessary, while at the same time providing flexibility in the choice of hardware and systems, and application software used to implement solutions. ?| Need for IF: A key business objective of most e-governance initiative is to provide client-centric joined-up government services to the public. In order to attain this objective, the government needs to be perceived as a single entity, with seamless flow of information across individual ministries and departments as necessary. An Interoperability Framework is essential to support the flow of information and to improve the coherence of information systems maintained by individual ministries and departments. By bringing together the relevant specifications under an overall framework, IT management and software developers have a single point of reference whenever a need arises to locate the required interoperability specifications that should be followed for a specific project. By adopting these interoperability specifications, system designers can ensure interoperability between systems while at the same time have the flexibility to select different hardware, and systems and application software to implement solutions. ?| Global Interoperability Framework Initiatives: Having recognized the importance of Interoperability Framework and its relevance and impact on e-Governance, many countries have evolved or in the process of evolving standards for their national Interoperability Framework for government business as well as for other sectors. These frameworks address the use of some combination of technologies/ frameworks such as Networking LAN/WAN protocols, Directory Services, Domain naming, File, Hypertext and Message transfer protocols, Messaging/Data Integration, Schema/Metadata Registries, Web-based Services and Middleware, Security, Authentication, Character sets, Newsgroup services, Browsers and Viewers, SMS/WAP/iMode, Reusability. ?| NIC’s Approach to a National IFEG: NIC has initiated the development of an Interoperability Framework for e-Governance (IFEG) that comprises a set of policies and technical standards to facilitate interaction between isolated e-governance applications. Once an IFEG is adopted, it will result in better interaction among government, citizen, business and technology vendors. Leveraging the recent technical advancements that allow applications to interoperate, regardless of the underlying technologies, the IFEG envisages facilitating joined-up service delivery through a single window. In tune with the International Standards being adopted in many parts of the globe in the area of Interoperability and also taking into account the Indian context, IFEG will identify key areas for defining interoperability standards and will recommend Standards for each one of them. As a Proof of Concept, NIC has initiated the implementation of IFEG standards in National Level Projects, which include Employment Exchange, Land Records, Hospital Services, Property Registration, Treasury, Courts and AGMARKNET. ?| Vision and Objectives: NIC envisions evolving a framework for achieving interoperability of e-governance applications so that they can share and exchange data and processes irrespective of the hardware /software employed. Major objectives of the proposed IFEG are: • To provide user-centered e-services by facilitating the interoperability of services and systems between public administration agencies, as well as between the administrations and the public (citizens and business enterprises) at national level. • To help achieve interoperability, both within and across different policy area, and where appropriate, with business and citizens • To facilitate e-Governance applications development by Central and various State Governments around a common framework so that these applications are interoperable across the country. This will enable the developers to focus on the integration of services to the citizens without regard to various competing technology standards. • To provide detailed descriptions of the elements, which are, considered important for E-governance services by the Central and State Governments, and public sector undertakings. • To support e-Governance activities and projects to be launched by the state Governments. • To stay tuned with global standards and protocols. ?| Scope of IFEG: The scope of IFEG as NIC perceives, covers Technical Standards & Policies, Domain level Standards comprising Metadata Standards and Data Schemas for various domains and management issues related to implementation and evolution of IFEG. The logical structure for classifying components and organizing complex processes, technology and information is depicted as follows. ?| Technical Standards and Policies: This component of the IFEG defines the technical policies and specifications governing electronic information flows across the government sector. They cover interconnectivity, data integration, government electronic services access and delivery mechanisms and content creation and management. ?| Government Data Standard: The IFEG intends to adopt XML and the development of XML schemas as the basis of the government interoperability and integration strategy. Inherent to the development of XML schemas is a predetermined and agreed upon set of data standards. These data standards are to be used in the schemas and other interchange processes. These data standards are also to be used for data storage. ?| IFEG Meta Data Standard: It is essential to standardize government information systems so that they can be accessed easily from central servers. Metadata makes it easier to manage or find information, be it in the form of web pages, electronic documents, paper files or databases. For metadata to be effective, it needs to be structured and consistent across organizations. The IMS shall define the elements, refinements and encoding schemes to be used by government employees when creating metadata for their information resources or designing search interfaces for information systems. The IMS is needed to ensure maximum consistency of metadata across all government organizations. ?| XML Schema: A true implementation of e-governance applications under the IFEG will require numerous government processes that will involve interchange of data. These transactions require common data definitions, which IFEG defines as XML schemas for use throughout the government organizations. A library of XML Schemas will be required to be developed for domains like address and personal details, archives and records management, education, geographical, health, local government services, and metadata etc. IFEG Technical Standards and Policies Government Data Standard IFEG Meta Data Standard XML Schema ?| Guidelines & Policies for Technical Standards NIC considers that while implementing the Interoperability Framework, the emphasis should obviously be on ‘interoperability’. Standardization in technology and coordination with government decisions/legislations can achieve this. In general, adherence to some prescribed guidelines and principles should result in a more efficient Interoperability Framework. The following guidelines and recommendations should be used while selecting Standards under the Interoperability Framework: ?| Industry Standards: The specifications adopted should be globally recognized standards. ?| Vendor Neutral Products: The specifications adopted should be vendor neutral. ?| Limited Number of Specifications: For any Interoperability Domain, the number of allowable specifications should be limited, as far as practicable, and without diluting the overall objective of interoperability, in order to minimize the cost and complexity to support these specifications. ?| Global Initiatives: The specifications adopted should take due notice of similar global initiatives, demonstrating good practices. ?| New versions: Versions of standards may need to be revised as new functionality is introduced. Special attention should be paid to ensure backward compatibility to minimize the impact of transition to a new version of a specification, thereby facilitating continued interoperability. ?| Version Selection: The selected version by the user need not be the latest available version; this is because the selected version may meet the functional requirements. ?| Dynamic Environment: Technologies, standards and the end user requirements are continually changing with time. The framework should be able to respond to these changes and should be able to function in a dynamic environment. ?| Easy Access to Information: Central to the effectiveness and utility of e-governance is the ability of end users to gain easy access to Government and public sector information. Option to an end user to complete all transactions at a single point; provision of integrated services; availability of services in different languages; multi-channel and multimedia communication means; are all crucial to the success of E-Governance and hence to the design and development of the framework. ?| Adoption of Web-based Standards: It is essential that the framework is aligned with the specifications and standards adopted by the Internet and World Wide Web in respect of all public domain information systems. ?| Web-based Technology: Primary means of access to all public domain information systems must be through web-based technology. ?| Use of Primary Standards: XML (eXtensible Markup Language) may be adopted as the primary standard for data integration and presentation tools for all public domain information systems. ?| Use of Open Standards: Open standards should be followed to allow exchange of information between dissimilar hardware, operating systems and application software. For example, XML allows creation of common information formats. It permits sharing of both the format and the data over the Internet and intranet and the transformation of data from one format to another. ?| Use of Open Source Software: Open Source Software has publicly available specifications. The open availability of their source code encourages further development in the public domain, making them robust and interoperable. The objectives of this framework are in tune with those of open source software (OSS) and therefore, they should be assessed and considered favorably alongside proprietary products. ?| Use of Reusable Software Components: It is important to speed up the life cycle of large software project mainly to avoid time overrun and to keep the cost of development under control. This requirement can be partially met by employing reusable software components and processes. Efforts should be made to identify and create components, which can be used within the application as well as across various applications in different ministries and departments. The use of tried and tested components enhances the quality of the entire system. ?| Scalability: There could always be changing demands made on the information system, such as changes in data volumes, number of transactions or number of users. It is essential that the specifications chosen have the capability to be scaled to satisfy these changing demands. ?| Metadata Standards: Standardization of metadata is essential if the data is to be truly interoperable. It also ensures that information access and services rendering to the citizens is achieved without the knowledge of the structure of the Government. ?| Compliance with IFEG: Compliance with the Interoperable Framework must be made mandatory for any NIC developed e-governance application for the Government. Suitable mechanisms must be adopted by existing and legacy systems to conform to the framework. ?| Information Security & Reliability: Information security is fundamental and central to provision of services to and interaction with the public. The E-Government application architecture recognizes data security as an all-pervasive component, which can be supported by suitable processes, methods, data formats in every element. The aims of data security are to ensure Confidentiality, Integrity, Authenticity and Availability. ?| Strategic Initiatives from NIC: Since inception, National Informatics Centre (NIC) has been in the forefront to help automate Government businesses. NIC has significantly contributed to Information and Communication led developmental functions at the Central and State Governments level. NIC continues with this commitment to reach new vistas of IT-enabled government services. In the recent past, NIC has launched a number of initiatives that are allied to the ultimate goal of achieving interoperability. Some of them are: ?Implementation of identified National E-governance projects ?Incorporation of state-of-the art applications development technologies into its developmental activities. ?Creation of a collaborative development environment over NICNET. ?Evolving a strategy for making a unified SRS for the National E-Governance Projects. ?Linkage with leading technology providers and industries. ?Interoperability and standardization of E-governance applications development. ?| Towards Evolving Interoperability Standards: In view of its pre-eminence in developing e-governance applications, NIC feels that it should assume leadership in evolving standards and specifications for interoperability of applications implemented at State/National level by NIC in collaboration with respective ministries/departments of the government. NIC further considers that it should start a major initiative to evolve an Interoperability Framework for all E-Governance applications developed in-house. The foremost thrust of this interoperability framework is to adopt Internet and World Wide Web Standards for all systems. This is achieved by evolving a framework that sets standards and specifications for various aspects of ICT systems. Such an Interoperability Framework will support the E-Governance strategies of providing citizen-centric services by facilitating interoperability of ICT systems between all the stakeholders of E-Governance. In addition to technology, this framework will also address both procedures and content. ?| IFEG Workshop: A workshop on the Interoperability Framework for E-Governance- Technical Standards Document prepared by NIC was conducted in the month of July 2004. Majority of the NIC e-governance applications are running on prominent technologies such as Microsoft, IBM, Oracle, SUN Microsystems. Hence, in this context, these major solution providers were also invited to participate in the workshop. During the worshop, the IFEG Technical Standards Document Version 1.0 was discussed and deliberated upon. A working group was also formed, comprising of representatives drawn from NIC and the industry, to further carry on with the standardization work and to further work on the standards document. NIC is closely interacting with the industry mainly to find ways to make the applications around open standards, thereby making them platform independent and to ensure their interoperability. ?| IFEG Advisory Groups In order to accelerate the development of IFEG Standards, NIC is considering the formation of specialized working groups on the following domains: ? Data Standards ? Schema ? Interoperability ? Government Processes ? Component Library Members of the advisory group will be drawn from government departments and industry.