National e-Governance Plan The National e-Governance Plan of Indian Government seeks to lay the foundation and provide the impetus for long-term growth of e-Governance within the country. The plan seeks to create the right governance and institutional mechanisms, set up the core infrastructure and policies and implement a number of Mission Mode Projects at the center, state and integrated service levels to create a citizen-centric and business-centric environment for governance.

It takes a holistic view of e-Governance initiatives across the country, integrating them into a collective vision, a shared cause. Around this idea, a massive countrywide infrastructure reaching down to the remotest of villages is evolving, and large-scale digitization of records is taking place to enable easy, reliable access over the internet. The ultimate objective is to bring public services closer home to citizens, as articulated in the Vision Statement of NeGP.

It includes :

The Government of India has approved the NeGP in May 2006 with the vision: "Make all Government services accessible to the common man in his locality, throughout common service delivery outlets and ensure efficiency, transparency & reliability of such services at affordable costs to realize the basic needs of the common man".

The NeGP currently consists of 27 Mission Mode Projects (MMPs) and 8 Support Components to be implemented at the Central, State and Local Government levels. These include Projects such as Income Tax, Customs & Excise & Passports at the Central Level, Land Records, Agriculture and e-District at the State Level and Panchayats and Municipalities at the Local Level. There are also a number of Integrated MMPs like e-Procurement, Service Delivery Gateway and EDI which are integrated MMPs where delivery of services envisaged in the project entail coordinated implementation across multiple Departments of Government. The Service Delivery Infrastructure While the mission Mode Projects would enable the backend computerization of various departments, thereby e-enabling them for any time anywhere service delivery, to achieve the vision of providing government services at the doorstep of the citizen, a common service delivery platform is being created. The three important elements that form the basis of this effective service delivery framework are, State Wide Area networks (SWANs), the front-end outlets for the service delivery i.e. Common Service Centres (CSCs) and the State Data Centres (SDCs), as detailed below:
State Wide Area Network (SWANs) Wide Area Network is an advanced telecommunication infrastructure, which is used now-a-days extensively, for exchange of data and other types of information between two or more locations, separated by significant geographical distances. The medium of connectivity can be copper, optical fiber cable or wireless, as may be found feasible. Such wide area networks, in a way, create a highway for electronic transfer of information in the form of voice, video and data. Department of IT in Government of India is implementing an approved Scheme known as State Wide Area Network (SWAN) Scheme, envisaged to create such a connectivity in each State / UT, to bring speed, efficiency, reliability and accountability in overall system of Government-to-Government (G2G) functioning. When fully implemented, SWAN would work as a converged backbone network for voice, video and data communications across each State / UT. SWAN is designed to cater to the governance information and communication requirements of all the State / UT Departments. When fully implemented, SWANs across the country are expected to cover at least 50000 departmental offices through 1 million (10 lacs) route kilometers of communication links.
Government has approved the scheme for establishing State Wide Area Networks (SWANs) in 29 States and 6 UTs across the country at a total cost of Rs 3334 crore. This scheme envisages establishment of an intra-government network with a minimum of 2 Mbps connectivity from the State Headquarters to Block Headquarters through District Headquarters. The SWAN project provides the connectivity to facilitate the rolling out of citizen centric services under various Mission Mode Projects (MMPs) under NeGP. The scheme has two implementation options -

• PPP Model: The first option is to call for a bid from private entities, which would set up and operate this SWAN in the State for a period of five years. The payments to the successful bidder would begin only after the infrastructure has been set up. The contract signed with the private party provides for strict Service Level Agreements (SLAs) and there is a provision of penalties to be imposed on the party should it fail to meet those service levels.
• NIC Model: In the second model the State has the option for going directly to the NIC and the NIC would set up and maintain the SWAN for the State for a period of 5 years.

State Wide Area Network SchemeDepartment of IT obtained Government approval in March 2005, for the SWAN Scheme for an overall outlay of Rs. 3334 Crores. This outlay has a Grant in Aid component of Rs. 2005 Crores, to be expended by Department of IT in five years. The Scheme has a State / UT share of balance Rs.1329 crores, which has been provisioned by the Department of Expenditure, Govt. of India, under Additional Central Assistance (ACA). Under the SWAN Scheme, Wide Area Networks are being established in 27 States and 6 UTs across the country. The State of Goa and UT of Andaman & Nicobar Islands have implemented Wide Area Networks in the respective State / UT, outside the SWAN Scheme. Implementation of the SWAN Scheme is in full swing in 33 States/ UTs and the Department of IT has so far approved an outlay of Rs. 1965 Crores of GIA for this purpose.

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