The pervasive support of NICNET to the Government at all levels has begun the process of reducing the communication gap between the Central Government and the State Government on one hand; and the State Government and their district administrations on the other. The time is now appropriate for giving information on information. NICNET is a Newsletter of the National Informatics Centre (NIC) fulfils this necessity.
The changing priorities of the Planning Commission are progressively emphasizing the important role played by indicative planning. Indicative planning requires analysis on social, economic and organizational matters which has now become the primary concern of National Informatics Centre after it moved to the Planning Commission. Planning also requires the monitoring of Plan projects which NIC has speeded up by receiving the required information over NICNET from the project sites. Extensive use of NIC infrastructure including NICNET was made by the Planning Commission and the State Planning bodies during the preparation of the Report of the Eighth Five Year Plan. NIC got printed in English, Hindi and other Regional Languages a proforma for information collection pertaining to the decentralized district level planning.
Exciting technological developments are taking place in the field of informatics. The implication of these technologies as they emerge, has to be well understood by all the users of computers and computer-communication in the Government and in the public domain.
With NIC poised to expand NICNET up to the Tehsil level during the Eighth Five Year period, the possibility of communication gap further increases unless it is consciously planned otherwise. The fact that NIC has succeeded in linking all the State/UT Government Secretariats to NICNET after signing a standard Memorandum of Understanding with all of them, almost all the State Governments have set up NIC State Coordination Committees mostly under the chairmanship of the Chief Secretary, is indicative of the a priori demand of the responsibility and enthusiasm shown by them.
I am confident that the launching of the quarterly Newsletter of the National Informatics Centre, NICNET and its countrywide distribution will be followed by the Newsletter itself being put in computerized form for general access from all the terminals of NICNET.