Framework for Mobile Governance

Government of India
Ministry of Communications & Information Technology
Department of Information Technology
January 2012

FRAMEWORK FOR MOBILE GOVERNANCE has been notified in The Gazette of India, February 25 – March 2, 2012, [Part I – Section 1], Weekly Issue No. 8, Job No. 471G1/2011, DIT File Reference 9(6)/2010-EG-II (Part II). Please download the electronic copy from http://egazette.nic.in or by clicking: Notified in The Gazette of India (682.44 KB)

Preamble

The National e-Governance Plan (NeGP) of the Government of India takes a holistic view of e-Governance initiatives across the country, integrating them into a collective vision. Around this idea, a massive countrywide infrastructure reaching down to the remotest of villages is being developed, and large-scale digitization of records is taking place to enable easy and reliable access over the internet. The ultimate objective is to bring public services closer home to the populace, as articulated in the Vision Statement of NeGP: "Make all Government services accessible to the common man in his locality, through common service delivery outlets, and ensure efficiency, transparency, and reliability of such services at affordable costs to realise the basic needs of the common man".

As an extension of this vision, and in cognizance of the vast mobile phone subscriber base of over 870 million in the country, the Government has decided to also provision for access of public services through mobile devices, thereby establishing mobile Governance (m-Governance) as a compelling new paradigm within the ethos of e-Governance.

1. Objectives

The m-Governance framework of Government of India aims to utilize the massive reach of mobile phones and harness the potential of mobile applications to enable easy and round-the-clock access to public services, especially in the rural areas. The framework aims to create unique infrastructure as well as application development ecosystem for m-Governance in the country.

2. Statement

Government of India will progressively adopt and deploy m-Governance in a time-bound manner to ensure inclusive delivery of public services to both the urban and rural populace in the country in accordance with this framework.

The following are the main measures laid down:

• Web sites of all Government Departments and Agencies shall be made mobile-compliant, using the “One Web” approach.
• Open standards shall be adopted for mobile applications for ensuring the interoperability of applications across various operating systems and devices as per the Government Policy on Open Standards for e-Governance.
• Uniform/ single pre-designated numbers (long and short codes) shall be used for mobile-based services to ensure convenience.
• All Government Departments and Agencies shall develop and deploy mobile applications for providing all their public services through mobile devices to the extent feasible on the mobile platform. They shall also specify the service levels for such services.

3. Review

The Government of India reserves the right to review and revise the framework as and when required.

4. Definitions

Definitions of the common terms used in m-Governance can be seen at Annexure-I.

5. Implementation Strategy

A detailed implementation strategy for this framework has been provided in Annexure – II.

6. Point of Contact

Queries or comments related to this framework may be sent to the Additional Secretary (e-Governance), Department of Information Technology, Electronics Niketan, 6 CGO Complex, Lodhi Road, New Delhi – 110003. They can also be sent through e-mail to asegov AT mit.gov.in or mgov AT negp.gov.in .

Please click here to download the complete: FRAMEWORK FOR MOBILE GOVERNANCE document and annexures(479 KB)