Big Data

Systems:

National Data and Analytics Platform: Vision Document1

This platform, launched by NITI Aayog, aims to democratize access to publicly available government data. It will host the latest datasets from various government websites, present them coherently, and provide tools for analytics and visualization. NDAP will follow a user-centric approach and will enable data access in a simple and intuitive portal tailored to the needs of a variety of stakeholders. NDAP claims to spearhead the standardization of formats in which data is presented across sectors and will cater to a wide audience of policymakers, researchers, innovators, data scientists, journalists and citizens.

India Stack2

India Stack is a collection of Open APIs. These APIs belong to various public entities in the country.

The following APIs are a core part of the India Stack:

Aadhaar Authentication
Aadhaar e-KYC
eSign
Digital Locker
Unified Payment Interface (UPI)
Digital User Consent - still work in progress.

It is aimed at bringing down the cost of serving a customer so that it is viable to also serve customers that were not possible before and create a platform to bring the population into the digital age Hence, it allows banks, mutual funds, insurance companies, etc. to provide services without a state subsidy, to the entire population.

These are APIs that are 'owned' by the Indian government / public entity, and are published by them. They are not licensed under Open Source / GPL terms. Implementation/accessing these APIs are based on open criteria put up by owner entities.

State Data Centre (SDC) and National Data Centres3

State Data Centre (SDC) is one of the three core infrastructure components under the National e-Governance Plan. Under the SDC Scheme, it is proposed to establish Data Centres in all the States/UTs to consolidate services, applications and infrastructure in order to provide efficient electronic delivery of G2G, G2C and G2B services. Some of the key functionalities that can be provided through SDC are central repository for the State, secure data storage, online delivery of services, citizen information/ services portal, State Intranet Portal, disaster recovery, remote management and service integration, etc. SDCs also provide better operation & management control with minimized overall cost of data management, IT resource management, deployment and other costs for States/UTs.

As on 28th February, 2018, 28 SDCs have been declared operational. 15 States, have completed Cloud enablement. The SDC scheme has provisioned for a Disaster Recovery (DR) mechanism through storage based replication as part of the SDC enhancement. Till date 22 States are DR enabled.

The NIC is operating National Data Centres at Delhi, Hyderabad and Pune. Hosting support for e-Governance Applications, Web portals and Websites is being provided on 24x7 basis. These Data Centres are also hosting National Cloud services for Government Projects. Mini-Data Centres are also operational in all NIC State Centres to cater to the e-Governance requirements at the State level. Hosting support is being provided for various critical e-Governance Projects viz. e-Procurement, Public Financial Monitoring System (CPSMS), eLekha, e-Panchayat, Aadhaar Enabled Biometric Attendance System (AEBAS), IVFRT, PDS, Swachh Bharat Mission, National Portal of India, Jeevan Pramaan, CCBS, and NREGA.

State Data Centres- Guidelines for Technical and Financial Support For Establishment of State Data Centre (SDC), Department of Information Technology4

Under NeGP, it is proposed to create State Data Centres for the States to consolidate services, applications and infrastructure to provide efficient electronic delivery of G2G, G2C and G2B services. These services can be rendered by the States through common delivery platform seamlessly supported by core Connectivity Infrastructure such as State Wide Area Network (SWAN) and Common Service Centre (CSC) connectivity extended up to village level. State Data Centre would provide many functionalities and some of the key functionalities are Central Repository of the State, Secure Data Storage, Online Delivery of Services, Citizen Information/Services Portal, State Intranet Portal, Disaster Recovery, Remote Management and Service Integration.

State Data Centre acts as a mediator and convergence point between open unsecured public domain and sensitive government environment. The paramount consideration in this arrangement is the security of the data and the preservation of the ownership and control of government data, both de jure and de facto. In view of the above, DIT has formulated the Guidelines to provide Technical and Financial assistance to the States for setting up State Data Centre. These Guidelines also include the norms for outsourcing of the SDC to a private/ public sector service provider including some of the technical and administrative norms to be followed by the States, depending on the implementation option adopted by the State to establish the SDC.

The architecture of a Data Centre would be such as to provide a model environment capable of handling the typical business model of dynamic change supporting multiple G2G, G2C, G2B, B2C activities across all channels like CSCs, portals, kiosks etc. The Central Government has prescribed steps for Data Centre Management and Monitoring and for data retention.

e-Pramaan5

MeitY has conceptualized and initiated the e-Pramaan framework (notified in The Gazette of India in December 2012) for e-Authentication for public services. The objective is to electronically deliver the government services to its intended recipients in a secured manner, as well as to build citizen’s trust in online environment, which is always prone to identity thefts and other associated risks. MeitY has made e-Pramaan available for public usage with the help of implementing agency C-DAC, Mumbai. e-Pramaan is a centralized standard based strong multi-factored authentication system which provides four factors for user authentication : Password (text, image), One Time Password (SMS, email, mobile app), Digital Certificate (Indian CAs), and Biometric (Finger Print, IRIS) in its production environment. At present, 105 services are integrated and using e-Pramaan for authentication. Another major component of e-Pramaan is Aadhaar Ecosystem.

GI Cloud (MeghRaj)6

MeghRaj initiative is intended to deliver ICT services over cloud to all the departments/ ministries at the Centre and States/UTs. The vision of this initiative is to accelerate delivery of e-Services in the country while optimizing ICT spending of the Government.

Initiatives under Digital India Programme hosted on National Cloud include:

o Digital India Portal

o Digital Locker

o Digitize India

o Make-in-India

o Skill Development

o Smart Cities

o Online Registration System (e-Hospital)

o Aadhaar based Biometric Attendance of Government employees

o Jeevan Pramaan - service for pensioners

o MyGov-largest citizen engagement platform of the Government

e-Hospital Project/ Online Registration System (ORS)7

Hon’ble Prime Minister of India launched Online Registration System (ORS) under e-Hospital project during Digital India Week on 28th February 2017. ORS services include taking online appointment, viewing of lab reports and checking of status of blood availability in blood banks. Apart from this, online payment has been facilitated wherever applicable. So far these services have been implemented in New Delhi and Bengaluru.

e-Hospital is aimed at implementation of Hospital Management Information System (HIMS) for internal workflow of hospital. The patient interface of the e-Hospital has been facilitated through ORS where services related to patients will be delivered electronically. e-Hospital is available to government hospitals through Software as a Services (SaaS) model. It enables single interface for Patients through Online Registration System (ORS) for various services and also create uniformity of e-Hospital Application across the all Government Hospitals. e-Hospital application built using open source technology and standards recommended by Ministry of Health & Family Welfare (MoHFW). e-Hospital is an Open Source based HMIS application software developed by NIC. 143 hospitals are on board with the Online Registration System (ORS) as on 19th March, 2018.

Digital Locker8

Digital Locker is a platform for issuance and verification of documents and certificates in a digital form.

The benefits of DigiLocker are as follows:

• Access: Citizens can access their digital documents anytime, anywhere and share it online.

• Paperless: It reduces the administrative overhead of Government departments by minimizing the use of paper.

• Authenticity: Digital Locker makes it easier to validate the authenticity of documents as they are issued directly by the registered issuer.

• eSign: Self-uploaded documents can be digitally signed using the eSign facility (which is similar to the process of self-attestation).

The Ministry of Communications And Information Technology (Department of Electronics and Information Technology) has issued the Information Technology (Preservation and Retention of Information by Intermediaries Providing Digital Locker Facilities) Rules, 2016.

The Rules specify the mode of operation of Digital Locker System, the manner in which Digital Locker system will be used by issuer, the role of Digital Locker service providers, and the control of Digital Locker account credentials.

As per the Rules, the following information shall be treated as confidential, namely:––

(a) Digital Locker account application;

(b) Digital Locker account information collected from the subscriber or elsewhere as part of the registration;

(d) Digital Locker contents;

(e) document URI; and

(f) any other information as may be notified by the DeitY.

The access to confidential information by the employees of the Digital Locker service provider shall be on a "need-to-know" and "need-to-use" basis.

The Digital Locker service provider is bound to observe and maintain reasonable security practices as mandated under the Information Technology (Reasonable Security Practices and Procedures and Sensitive Personal data or Information) Rules, 2011.