Government of India consists of Central Government and State Governments. The Central Government of India consists of more than 18 Apex Offices, 53 Ministries, 2 Independent Departments, 54 Departments and 86 Commissions. There are 36 States / UTs in India, which have corresponding and other independent Apex Bodies, Departments, Boards / Undertakings, Statutory Bodies and Commissions to coordinate with Central Government to jointly undertake delivery of various e-services like Government to Government (G2G), Government to Business (G2B) and Government to Citizen (G2C). The number of eTransactions being delivered by these Government agencies has grown exponentially over the years, reaching more than 48 Cr transactions per month.
These e-services are delivered by various Government Agencies through multiple applications and channels. Most of these e-services delivering applications work in silos and do not provide integrated solutions to the citizens. Thus, it has become imperative to have in place an interoperable ecosystem of data, applications and processes which will make appropriate information available to the right user at the right time. Interoperability among various e-Governance systems is an important prerequisite for upgrading the quality and effectiveness of service delivery. It is also required in order to facilitate the single window concept of electronic services delivery by Government organizations.
In order to facilitate the above, an enabling Policy Framework consisting of “Policy on Open Standards for e-Governance”, “Technical Standards on Interoperability Framework for e-Governance” and “Policy on Open APIs for Government of India”.Implementation of the API Gateway shall provide an enabling platform for proactive and open access to the data generated by various ministries/departments/organizations of Government of India. This platform shall provide means for API repository, API Lifecycle Management and collaboration while sharing data responsibly, reliably and securely.