Preamble

Under the overarching vision of Digital India, Government of India (GoI) aims to make all Government services digitally accessible to citizens through multiple channels, such as web, mobile and common service delivery outlets. To meet this objective, there is a need for an interoperable ecosystem of data, applications and processes which will make the right information available to the right user at the right time.

In order to make rapid progress in this direction, Government of India (GoI) has taken various policy initiatives, including implementation of Mission Mode Projects (MMPs). Interoperability among various e-Governance systems is an important prerequisite for upgrading the quality and effectiveness of service delivery. It is also required in order to facilitate the single window concept of electronic services delivery by Government organizations.

For promoting Open Standards for software interoperability across various Government departments and agencies, GoI has already notified the “Policy on Open Standards for e-Governance” and “Technical Standards on Interoperability Framework for e-Governance”. The world-wide initiatives on “Open Government” also focus on open APIs to easily access the information collected by Government organizations.

Given the enormous advantages in this regard, there is a need to formulate a policy for the Government organizations in India to provide Open Application Programming Interfaces (APIs). The “Policy on Open APIs for Government of India” (hereinafter referred to as the “Policy”) will encourage the formal use of Open APIs in Government organizations. This policy sets out the Government’s approach on the use of “Open APIs” to promote software interoperability for all e-Governance applications & systems and provide access to data & services for promoting participation of all stakeholders including citizens.