DIGITAL INDIA ENTERPRISE ARCHITECTURE (IndEA) 

Under the overarching vision of Digital India Programmer Government of India aims to make all Government services digitally accessible in an integrated manner to citizens through multiple channels like web, mobile and common service delivery outlets. The Digital India is implementing the India Enterprise Architecture (IndEA), a concept that promises a single window digitisation solution for its citizens.

IndEA seeks to simplify citizen's life. An individual can book a ticket on the IRCTC website, check the status of voter’s card on the Election Commission of India website, register a company on the MCA21 portal, book an appointment for passport on the Passport Seva website, check the status of Aadhaar card on the UIDAI portal etc. Clearly, the offline queues will shift to online.

With IndEA there will be one personalised account for each individual and he or she can avail all government services from that personalised account. Residents  no longer have to visit separate sites and have separate logins on them to access government services. And, various e-queues will become the thing of past after the country adopts IndEA.

IndEA provides a generic framework, (based on The Open Group Architecture Framework -TOGAF) comprising a set of architecture reference models, which can be converted into a Whole-of-Government Architecture for India, Ministries, States, Govt. Agencies etc. The IndEA framework is based on federated architecture approach and recognizes the need to accommodate both greenfield (new) and brownfield (existing / legacy) eGovernance initiatives

 Need for IndEA

The need for nationwide enterprise architecture is felt because e-governance projects are standalone initiatives and rarely holistic. They don’t conform to standards as defined by the government but are an automated result of the existing processes. Even if new systems are built the legacy systems continue, leading to a mismatch in delivery of services. Besides, many existing systems are vendor-driven and they seldom interact with others.

IndEA provides a generic framework, comprising a set of architecture reference models, which can be converted into an integrated architecture, including ministries, states, government agencies etc. IndEA will be based on a federal architecture that will accommodate both greenfield (new) and brownfield (existing/legacy) e-governance initiatives. The framework consists of eight reference models such as Business, Application, Data, Technology, Performance, Security, Integration and Architecture Governance.

 Paradigm of ONE Government

IndEA  is about a single e-entity for a citizen. IndEA’s vision is “to establish best-in-class architectural governance, processes and practices with optimal utilisation of 9ICT infrastructure and applications to offer ONE Government experience to the citizens and businesses.

Most of the services will be available on mobile (m-services) that are on the go. There will be a single app store or portal for all citizen services. Personalisation will also become possible. Certain concepts will eliminate the need for unnecessary documentation. IndEA’s interoperability will also vastly reduce the unproductive work for both the government and the people . Adoption of IndEA could lead to the evolution of centralised applications

Advantage of IndEA

The government can work as a single enterprise, enhancing its technical and economic efficiencies. IndEA can significantly bridge gaps in institutional capacities besides acting as a common benchmark

IndEA will not only reduce the cost of building systems but will also ensure that they are better integrated and also increase the longevity of e-governance software assets.

A unified government agenda is the need of the hour as it would improve the citizen’s participation and lay the foundation for emerging technologies like artificial intelligence. 

The enterprise architecture’s role is pivotal to transformation as IndEA aims to become the core of Digital India Version 2.0. India is marching along with other developed nations in implementing the Enterprise Architecture to deliver public good.