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An e-mail service of India’s own is what the government is working on now. The Department of Electronics and Information Technology (DeitY) is working hard to put in place an e-mail service that will ensure government communications and data are effective and unhackable.
The new email service will have smart features, and has been modelled on the lines of Gmail and Yahoo to make it user-friendly.
The new Made-in-India e-mail service will be first rolled out for the use of the Central government after which it will be extended to state governments. In the final phase it will also be made available to all Indian citizens for their interaction with the government.
“The new set-up will be backed by enhanced bandwidth and improved servers positioned in India,” a top official in the Department of Electronics and Information Technology (DeitY) told Mail Today.
He said the work has been fast-tracked and the standardization of e-mail design and templates for the government would be in place by November this year.
DeitY officials said they are still working out on the specifics of rolling out the new e-mail service, but assert it will have everything to make things easier for government babus.
“It will be like a Gmail or a Yahoo platform. Templates are being finalised. Any official communications through our new e-mail will look real and official. The new templates will give an official look to the document and will be taken seriously,” a senior DeitY official said.
The new e-mail service will have features like group sms and chat, and will also have closed user groups.
“You will also have calendars, task managers, bulk sms facility like what Google offers. Users can also send bulk sms through email,” said an official.
Enhancing security
Former telecom secretary and president of National Association of Software and Service Companies (NASSCOM) R. Chandrashekhar said the new government e-mail service will enhance the security of government communications and official data.
“It was initially envisaged primarily for government use but there is nothing inherent in it that prevents it from being used by the public as well,’’ he added.
Although the government has invested more than Rs 800 crore in modernising its existing National Informatics Centre (NIC) to ensure effective communication between departments and to have a system that cannot be hacked, the exercise has not been very successful.
The nic.in network being used now by the government lacks sufficient bandwidth, as a result of which it does not support larger files and makes downloading very slow. This has forced officials to switch to private e-mail accounts such as Gmail or Yahoo even for official work, making the nation’s decision-making system vulnerable to hacking.
As the servers for these e-mail services are in other countries, usually the United States, communications passing through them are vulnerable and open to misuse and data theft, a senior official said.
More...
The problem has assumed such proportions that security agencies have been regularly issuing guidelines on Internet usage to all ministries and government departments for fear that the use of Gmail, Hotmail or other such accounts for internal communication can expose them to interception by networks with servers outside India.
“The Wikileaks revelations concerning India's diplomatic, political and other developments was another eye-opener,” another government official pointed out.
Top officials said the purpose behind having an effective and secure e-mail service is to ensure that the information and data is not leaked.
Project in phases
The new upcoming India-owned Gmail-like platform is part of the ambitious Digital India programme of the Narendra Modi government.
The programme, which would be implemented in a phased manner by 2019, is estimated to cost about Rs 1.13 lakh crore and will largely include ongoing schemes being run by DeitY and the Department of Telecommunications.
“The move is to provide digital empowerment of citizens where all documents, certificates are available on cloud. You will also have a digital wallet scheme, where every citizen from cradle to grave will get a single identity and a space in a public cloud,” said another official.
Another official said: "Very often you hear our colleagues say that they cannot take emails with larger attachments, or that their email inboxes are too full or that it is down completely. This in itself puts all of us to shame. Our government officials rely on American providers for their official and published email IDs rather than on the government's in-house IT department at NIC,” a government official said.
Better communication system on horizon
By Sanjay Singh in New Delhi
The Centre is working on widening the ambit of its Restricted Exchange (RAX) system to accommodate more senior government officials.
Telecom Secretary Rakesh Garg told Mail Today on Tuesday that a “new refined and fully encrypted communication system” for the council of ministers and senior officials will be put in place very soon.
“The work on this has been going on for quite some time. Once this specially dedicated secure system is upgraded, we would have all such communications in an encrypted format. The system is being upgraded to a level so that the communication at the top level of governance is made secure with no possibility of it being tampered with. We would also be able to accommodate more officers at the rank of joint secretaries at the Centre,” Garg said.
Read more: Government readies national email service: 'Unhackable' server modelled on Gmail will bring secure network to all Indians | Daily Mail Online
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook
The new email service will have smart features, and has been modelled on the lines of Gmail and Yahoo to make it user-friendly.
The new Made-in-India e-mail service will be first rolled out for the use of the Central government after which it will be extended to state governments. In the final phase it will also be made available to all Indian citizens for their interaction with the government.
“The new set-up will be backed by enhanced bandwidth and improved servers positioned in India,” a top official in the Department of Electronics and Information Technology (DeitY) told Mail Today.
He said the work has been fast-tracked and the standardization of e-mail design and templates for the government would be in place by November this year.
DeitY officials said they are still working out on the specifics of rolling out the new e-mail service, but assert it will have everything to make things easier for government babus.
“It will be like a Gmail or a Yahoo platform. Templates are being finalised. Any official communications through our new e-mail will look real and official. The new templates will give an official look to the document and will be taken seriously,” a senior DeitY official said.
The new e-mail service will have features like group sms and chat, and will also have closed user groups.
“You will also have calendars, task managers, bulk sms facility like what Google offers. Users can also send bulk sms through email,” said an official.
Enhancing security
Former telecom secretary and president of National Association of Software and Service Companies (NASSCOM) R. Chandrashekhar said the new government e-mail service will enhance the security of government communications and official data.
“It was initially envisaged primarily for government use but there is nothing inherent in it that prevents it from being used by the public as well,’’ he added.
Although the government has invested more than Rs 800 crore in modernising its existing National Informatics Centre (NIC) to ensure effective communication between departments and to have a system that cannot be hacked, the exercise has not been very successful.
The nic.in network being used now by the government lacks sufficient bandwidth, as a result of which it does not support larger files and makes downloading very slow. This has forced officials to switch to private e-mail accounts such as Gmail or Yahoo even for official work, making the nation’s decision-making system vulnerable to hacking.
As the servers for these e-mail services are in other countries, usually the United States, communications passing through them are vulnerable and open to misuse and data theft, a senior official said.
More...
The problem has assumed such proportions that security agencies have been regularly issuing guidelines on Internet usage to all ministries and government departments for fear that the use of Gmail, Hotmail or other such accounts for internal communication can expose them to interception by networks with servers outside India.
“The Wikileaks revelations concerning India's diplomatic, political and other developments was another eye-opener,” another government official pointed out.
Top officials said the purpose behind having an effective and secure e-mail service is to ensure that the information and data is not leaked.
Project in phases
The new upcoming India-owned Gmail-like platform is part of the ambitious Digital India programme of the Narendra Modi government.
The programme, which would be implemented in a phased manner by 2019, is estimated to cost about Rs 1.13 lakh crore and will largely include ongoing schemes being run by DeitY and the Department of Telecommunications.
“The move is to provide digital empowerment of citizens where all documents, certificates are available on cloud. You will also have a digital wallet scheme, where every citizen from cradle to grave will get a single identity and a space in a public cloud,” said another official.
Another official said: "Very often you hear our colleagues say that they cannot take emails with larger attachments, or that their email inboxes are too full or that it is down completely. This in itself puts all of us to shame. Our government officials rely on American providers for their official and published email IDs rather than on the government's in-house IT department at NIC,” a government official said.
Better communication system on horizon
By Sanjay Singh in New Delhi
The Centre is working on widening the ambit of its Restricted Exchange (RAX) system to accommodate more senior government officials.
Telecom Secretary Rakesh Garg told Mail Today on Tuesday that a “new refined and fully encrypted communication system” for the council of ministers and senior officials will be put in place very soon.
“The work on this has been going on for quite some time. Once this specially dedicated secure system is upgraded, we would have all such communications in an encrypted format. The system is being upgraded to a level so that the communication at the top level of governance is made secure with no possibility of it being tampered with. We would also be able to accommodate more officers at the rank of joint secretaries at the Centre,” Garg said.
Read more: Government readies national email service: 'Unhackable' server modelled on Gmail will bring secure network to all Indians | Daily Mail Online
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook
