THE National Portal of India, http://india.gov.in is an authentic almanac to informa-tion and services of the Indian government at all levels from Central Government to State Government to District Administration for the Citizens, Business and Overseas Indians. It is a comprehensive, accurate, reli-able and one-stop source of infor-mation about India and its vari-ous facets both in English and Hindi, which acts as a Gateway to over 6700 Indian government websites. Ever since its launch in 2006, the portal has been striving to make the lives of the common men easy by bringing vari-ous services to their desktops. The National Portal has been serving as an ideal plat-form for promotion of government initiatives. Many of the Government initiatives, like CWG 2010, CGHS Plastic Card Drive, Pulse Polio, Planning Commission's Five year Plan etc. are being regularly featured on the Portal to communicate about latest initiatives taken by the Government of India. Information on various subjects and themes of national prominence including setting up business in Special Economic Zones, Admissions to Professional Courses based on Online Counseling, Empowerment for the Differently Abled, Green India - Working towards a better tomorrow etc. were highlighted through the edifying Spotlight sec-tion in the Portal. Exclusive Special Interest Groups for the Rural Indian, Importers & Exporters have been published on the Portal for the benefit of this community. The Rural Indian section is exclusively designed to give complete information to the villagers of India, not only about the various services, facil-ities and opportunities available, but also details of how to benefit from them, including a list of Online Services avail-able. Importers & Exporters section provides information to the business community with awareness on topics like Customs Act, Import Procedures, Anti Dumping Guidelines, Incentives and Facilities for Exporters, Important Policies, Regulations and Procedures Governing Foreign Trade etc. The National Portal is accessible to all users irrespec-tive of device in use, technology or ability. All information on this Portal is accessible to people with disabilities. It complies with priority 2 (level AA) of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 laid down by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). The Portal was mandated to develop "standards for presen-tation of content and visual feel shall be eventually developed and suggested". In view of this, standards to address the issues such as Consistency in navigation, Identity issue, Layout, Content structure, Document formats, Copyright, Privacy, Management policies etc. have been conceptualized and developed as Guidelines for Indian Government Websites (GIGW). These guidelines have been mandated by the government and adopted by Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances. It has also been included in the Central Secretariat Manual of Office Procedures. Initiatives for providing services towards awareness and website development in compliance with GIGW are also being taken up. In order to promote exemplary e-Governance initia-tive undertaken by Ministries/ Departments/ States, Web Ratna Awards were instituted under the ambit of india.gov.in. Maiden Web Ratna Awards for the year 2009 were conferred to awardees in April 2010. It now has more than 76,000 registered users. Since its launch the National Portal has not only serves the end-users or common citizens immensely, but has also gained significant ground when it comes to fulfill-ing the other basic objectives of electronic governance such as enhancing transparency, increasing efficiency in service delivery and encouraging effec-tive citizen participation in the process of governance.