Microsoft, IBM Among 11 Chosen To Implement Project Meghraj; Massive Cloud Governance Underway

By Mohul Ghosh Last updated Apr 17, 2017

Government of India is all set to implement their ambitious Project Meghraj, which will massively transform Governance into cloud computing.

Hailed as one of the largest Cloud Computing project initiated by any Government, anywhere in the world, Project Meghraj will enable absolute implementation of e-Governance via thousands of apps, portals and tools, which would be all interlinked and interdependent on each other.

One major step has already been taken in this direction, as Govt. of India selected 11 Cloud Services provider who would be now officially empanelled in the Cloud Service Offering module of Project Meghraj.

As per official statement released, these 11 service providers are:

Microsoft
HP
IBM India
Tata Communications
BSNL
ESDS Software
Net Magic
Sify
Ctrl-S Data Centers
CyFuture Private Limited
Web Werks India Private Limited

A statement from Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology said, “With reference to the RFP dated 30th December 2015, MeitY (Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology) has successfully concluded the evaluation process of provisionally empaneling the Cloud Service Offerings of Cloud Service

Providers. Letter of Provisional Empanelment has been awarded to the following Cloud Service Providers for two years, subject to the written acceptance of Terms and conditions within 15 days.”

The Request for Proposal (RFP) for selecting Cloud Service Providers was floated last year, and it had described the requirements and expectations in clear, transparent terms.

For instance, the implementation model of Project Meghraj (also called GI Cloud) was explained in detail, and in-depth details related to the standard procedures, guidelines, frameworks, and specification clearly outlined.

Project Meghraj will not only provide Software As A Service (SaaS) platform for all Govt. employees, citizens and leaders of the nation, but also act as Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) and Platform As A Service (Paas) framworks for accessing all Govt. services and schemes using Cloud.

Some of the functionalities which are included in Project Meghraj include:

Cloud services for accessing Govt. services
Cloud storage of Govt. documents, tenders and notifications
Cloud based software, tools, apps for all citizens
Cloud computing capability via remote locations, pan-India
Setting up of eGov app store, somewhat like Google Playstore to access all types of Govt. services
A panel for Cloud auditors, who will check the implementation of Cloud based services
Setting up of Cloud based eco-system of eGovernance, so that Policies, Guidelines, templates, security norms, certification, business models for applications, tariff & revenue models for private sector Cloud services are all accessed from one point of contact.

Here is the complete RFP for ‘Provisional Empanelment of Cloud Service Offerings of Cloud Service Providers (CSPs)’; and in-depth details on Project Meghraj as shared on the portal of Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology.