Explain the functions of National e-Governance Division (NeGD). Also discuss the 'State Data Centre' which has been identified as one of the important element of the core infrastructure for supporting e-Governance initia

National e-Governance Division (NeGD) has been playing a pivotal role in supporting Ministry of Electronics & Information in the key roles/tasks associated with Programme Management of NeGP. NeGD acts as one of the key catalysts and integrators for initiatives under Mission Mode Projects (MMP) and support components under NeGP across the country. NeGD is also expected to proactively support Central Ministries/ Departments/State Governments. Functions of National e-Governance Division (NeGD) Programme Management of NeGP, inter-alia including facilitating and supporting DIT in undertaking the following tasks and responsibilities assigned to DIT under NeGP: Facilitating implementation of NeGP by various Ministries and State Governments. Providing technical assistance to Central Ministries and State Line Departments. Serving as a secretariat to the Apex Committee. Undertaking technical appraisal of all NeGP projects to examine issues such as overall technology architecture, framework, standards, security policy, service delivery mechanism, sharing of common infrastructure etc. Human Resource Development, Training and Awareness Building. Framing core policies, technical assistance, R&D, awareness and assessment and creation of organization structure. Acting as a Central Agency for an effective implementation of Capacity Building Scheme inter-alia involving provisioning of manpower at various SeMTs across States/ UTs. Positioning of a Capacity Building Management Cell for effective management of manpower at SeMTs together with management of other Scheme activities including training, setting up HR policies, etc. Conduct research in the area of e-Governance models and develop appropriate solutions useable in India. Improve the Public-Private collaboration. Improve awareness amongst citizens for e-Governance projects and initiatives. Bridge the Digital Divide between common people and their accessibility to core e-Government services. State Data Centre State Data Centre (SDC) has been identified as one of the important element of the core infrastructure for supporting e-Governance initiatives of National e-Governance Plan (NeGP). State Data Centre acts as a mediator & convergence point between open unsecured public domain and sensitive government environment. It enables various State departments to host their services/applications on a common infrastructure leading to ease of integration and efficient management, ensuring that computing resources and the support connectivity infrastructure (SWAN/NICNET) is adequately and optimally used. Under NeGP, it is proposed to create State Data Centres for the States to consolidate services, applications and infrastructure to provide efficient electronic delivery of G2G, G2C and G2B services. These services can be rendered by the States through common delivery platform seamlessly supported by core Connectivity Infrastructure such as State Wide Area Network (SWAN) and Common Service Centre (CSC) connectivity extended up to village level. State Data Centre would provide many functionalities and some of the key functionalities are Central Repository of the State, Secure Data Storage, Online Delivery of Services, Citizen Information/Services. Portal, State Intranet Portal, Disaster Recovery, Remote Management and Service Integration etc. SDCs would also provide better operation & management control and minimize overall cost of Data Management, IT Resource, Management, Deployment and other costs. Department of Information Technology (DIT) has formulated the Guidelines to provide Technical and Financial assistance to the States for setting up State Data Centre. These Guidelines also include the implementation options that can be exercised by the State to establish the SDC.