One of the recent challenges a country faces is preparing its citizens and government for globalization and information and communication revolution. Information and Communication Technology (ICT) plays a pivotal role for instituting effective e-Governance, which essentially bridges the gap between government and citizenry. Standardization of District portal is implemented in six districts i.e. Khordha, Nuapada, Cuttack, Dhenkanal, Angul and Nabarangpur. Edited by R. Gayatri District is the middle level administrative unit which administers various plans, schemes, policies of the government and provides various services to the citizens. Presently most of the Districts are having websites, which are yet to be built on a uniform structure to address the real citizen centric requirements. So a standardized district portal framework across the country is being put in place, which is citizen centric, disseminates information about district and sub-district level with Orissa as a pilot State. It acts as a single window platform for all categories of information satisfying G2C, G2B, G2E and G2G services. The standardization of district portal initiative is based on the content architecture of the National Portal of India (india.gov.in), a mission mode project of Government of India, under the National e-Governance Plan (NeGP). One paper was published in ECEG9-European conference on e-Government held at London on the subject "Standardization of district portal: towards e-Government Transaction in India." S. K. PANDA State Informatics Officer, NIC Orissa sio-ori@nic.in DR. R. N. BEHERA Technical Director, NIC Orissa rnbehera@nic.in FEATURES THE PORTAL HAS THREE PARTS Citizen view (http://ordistricts.nic.in): Offers Single Window Service, Wide-Ranging Content, Citizen Oriented. The District Portal has been built from the 'users' or 'citizens' perspective, rather than from the perspective of the government. The citizen may visit the District Portal, rather than a number of websites for composite information. A Content Framework (CF) which covers all categories and sub-categories that becomes a part of District Portal. The CF is structured to collect comprehensive information on all aspects like District Profile, Administration, Who's Who, Profile of Important Sectors, Programmes & Schemes, Services (How Do I?), Forms, etc. Web CMS ( http://ordistportalcontent.nic.in ) A comprehensive web based Content Management System (CMS) is designed based on the content architecture of the National Portal of India (india.gov.in) under NeGP. The District Portal repository of huge content contribution is managed through a well defined work flow process. Moderation (http://ordistsupadmin.nic.in): The web CMS follows Workflow management i.e. Content Creators or Content Service Provider (CSP) can submit a story, but it is not published until the moderator clears it up and the Publisher approves it. So the role of the moderator is to accept or reject the content. Then the Publisher approves the content to be displayed on the citizen view portal. Overall features The Standardisation of District Portal follows decentralized maintenance, user friendly web CMS, role based authentication, consistent design and centralised content storage system. Security and Universal Accessibility Security, Scalability and Data Protection has been built in the District Portal both at the Infrastructure and Application (software) level. District Portal is hosted on security audited server infrastructure at IDC, and the application is audited and cleared by Cyber security Division, NIC New Delhi as per OWASP security guidelines. The Portal embraces the Accessibility standards with Guidelines for Indian Government Web-sites. With this the portal ensures interoperability and uses best technical approach like use of markup language cascading style sheet, use of scripting languages and others. Technology Server-side scripting PHP Database: MySQL Other scripts and technology: JavaScript/AJAX etc depending upon the page content Implementation Strategy For proper implementation of the portal it follows Content Moderation and Approval Policy (CMAP) The management structure of the District Portal involves multilevel committee which includes: State Co-ordination Committee: The state co-ordination committee is chaired by IT Secretary of the State with members from State Nodal Department (Orissa Computer Appli-cation Centre), SIO and NIC Coordinator National Portal (NCNP). The committee seeks advice from National Portal of India (NPI) team, NIC, New Delhi and DIT to administer progress of the project on a day-to-day basis. District website maintenance Committee: The District website maintenance Committee is chaired by District Magistrate with DIO as member secretary and other officers from District level. The committee is responsible for contributing and vetting the content. Content Service Provider (CSP): Contents are contributed by the CSP to the portal after approval by the district nodal officer. The contents after moderation by DIO are finally published by the state NCNP. CORE PROJECT TEAM The core project team consists of Dr. R. N. Behera, TD, Sh. K. C. Pattnaik, PSA, Sh. Sambit Panda, PSA, Ms S.Smita S/T-B under the guidance of Sh. S. K. Panda, SIO with the advise and technical support from NPI Team Sh. D. P. Misra, PSA headed by Sh. Neeta Verma, STD. The team handles the overall design, development, implementation and promotion of the Project. IMPLEMENTATION STATUS In other districts data collection and moderation process is under progress. So standardization of District Portal is one Stop source, which delivers information and services through cyberspace. It has given a new dimension to good governance through ICT. It is generic and can be replicated in other states. For further information S.K PANDA State Informatics Officer NIC Orissa State Centre Unit-IV, Sachivalaya Marg Bhubaneshwar-751001 Ph: 0674-2508438 sio-ori@nic.in