NEW DELHI: Taking a long-awaited step towards the realisation of Digital India, a high level committee (HLC) submitted its report for transformation of the National Informatics Centre, the technology infrastructure arm of the government.

The Committee, which was headed by InfosysBSE -1.55 % co-founder Kris Gopalakrishnan, was constituted with the approval of the Minister of Communications and Information Technology Ravi Shankar Prasad in December last year. The Committee has made several suggestions for “transformation of NIC to NIC 2.0”.

The redefined vision of NIC 2.0 is “to be the technology think tank and trusted technology partner of the government” and “play a key role in architecting, designing and developing the core information assets of the nation”.

Transforming NIC has been in the works at least for the last two years. The Digital India blueprint, released in August 2014, had identified the NIC as a top human resource challenge in the implementation of the ambitious programme. “NIC – not equipped for a fraction of this task (obsolesce) – needs revamping & restructuring,” it said.

The Department of Electronics and Information Technology (DeitY) has slowly been working to improve the internal efficiency and organizational structure of the NIC in the past two years. The role of NIc is crucial, considering this is the agency responsible for building most of the e-governance applications of the government at the centre, state and district levels. It is also responsible for building and maintaining internal systems that interoperate within the ministries, including email servi ..

The HLC redefined the objectives and functions of NIC in a 10-page presentation. It said that NIC 2.0 will continue as an attached office, and focus on architecture, design and strategic control of large service delivery projects. It also encourages NIC to partner with the private sector, and develop an action plan to promote research in e-governance and internal collaboration.

Other experts consulted include R Chandrashekhar, president of National Association of Services and Services Companies, G Padmanabhan, Bank of India chairman and Kiran Karnik, former Nasscom president.