Policy on Open Standards for e-Governance

What is it?

The Policy provides a framework for the selection of Standards to facilitate interoperability between systems developed by multiple agencies.
It provides organizations the flexibility to select different hardware and software for implementing cost-effective e-Governance solutions.
It aims for reliable long-term accessibility to public documents and information in the Indian context.

Need for the policy on open Standards

Department of Electronics and Information Technology (DeitY) has been assigned the responsibility for formulating standards for e-Governance systems in India, by GoI.
Therefore, as a prerequisite, a policy was required, under the purview of which, standards could be formulated.
The Policy on Open Standards should be applied to check the openness of each standard being formulated or adopted/ adapted from global standards identified for a particular domain

Who is responsible for the Policy on Open Standards?

The DeitY Designated Body/agencies responsible for standardization/adoption of Standards must apply this Policy to check the openness of each Standard identified for the respective domain.
All projects under e-Governance (Government to Government (G2G), Government to Business (G2B), and Government to Citizen (G2C)) shall adhere to this Policy. However other projects (B2B and B2C) are also encouraged to adhere to this Policy.

What is meant by e-Gov Standard?

The National e-Governance Plan was launched by the Government of India ( GoI) with the intent to support the growth of e-governance within the country.
Having realized the needs of the common man, it was felt that the e-Governance systems need to interoperate and for seamless sharing of data and service among the systems, standards need to be in place.
To ensure Interoperability among e-Governance applications, the Government of India has set-up an Institutional mechanism for the formulation of Standards through collaborative efforts of stakeholders like the Department of Information Technology (DIT), National Informatics Centre (NIC), Standardization Testing and Quality Certification( STQC), other Government departments.