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 0.13 % 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”.

It has stressed the need to for NIC 2.0 to “maintain pyramidal structure”, have direct recruitment at middle levels, and make provisions for professionals from industry, research, government and academia to join NIC on a sabbatical. It has also recommended “5% of annual budget for capacity building and training”.

Lack of up to date technical expertise and an intricate internal structure have long plagued NIC, according to several people ET has spoken to in the past. Until recently, it did not even have a permanent appointee to head the organization.

NIC 2.0 will continue to play an important role in e-governance plans for Digital India, said the HLC presentation. The committee has also said NIC will focus “to identify, establish and maintain the core data assets for government agencies…(and) keep abreast with cutting edge technologies”.

NIC was identified as a key improvement area by the then DeitY secretary R S Sharma, when he took the helm two years ago. Sharma, who was consulted by the HLC, had at the time stressed need for NIC to “reinvent” itself, and take on the role of a strategic advisor to the government.

Other members of the HLC included J Satyanarayana, former IT secretary; the DeitY secretary, Professor N Balakrishnan of the Indian Institute of Science, and director general of NIC.

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.

[Source:- The Economic Time]