Pioneering Digital Transformation and Technological Advancements in India with NIC
Alka Misra
Deputy Director General
National Informatics Centre
Digitally Forward
Alka Misra has a distinguished career with the National Informatics Centre, NIC, a premier science and technology initiative of the Government of India. As Deputy Director General, at NIC, she has spearheaded several successful digital initiatives across the nation under the ‘Digital India Program’. Notable accomplishments include building a NextGen Software Defined Cloud Platform, authoring guidelines for Indian Government Websites (GIGW), leading the PM Cares project, and spearheading the technology platform for MyGov, responsible for engaging nearly 3 crore citizens. It was under her leadership that NIC launched an open data platform to release government data (nearly 6 lakhs datasets) in the open for the public good. She also led the teams for the Ministry of Home Affairs’ prestigious program of Immigration, Visa and Foreigners’ Registration and Tracking not only across the country but also the Indian missions abroad.
Leading with Impact
Alka is one of the board of directors of National Informatics Centre Services Incorporated, NICSI. She has been overseeing the Digital India Awards, since 2016, which honours outstanding digital initiatives across the country. She is a jury member for the DARPG e-Governance awards. She also represents NIC, Ministry of Electronics & IT in various forums for the Open Data initiative, Web Technology roll-out, and implementation of large-scale projects as a technology architect. She authored many articles and actively contributed in professional technology forums, seminars, and workshops of national and international stature.
Nurturing for women empowerment
Alka Misra leads a team of 100 IT professionals, of which 20% are women. She ensures that her team has equal opportunities to work on cutting-edge technologies. The team leads many mission-critical projects, showcases their work at national and international forums. She takes a special interest in grooming the communication skills and boosting confidence of her team. She ensures no bias in her group and encourages her women colleagues to have equal access to expressing their ideas, participating in discussions, and mentoring younger colleagues.
Awards and Accolades
Many of the project led by Alka has won several awards. Notable ones include,
- GovInsider Innovation Award 2019 in the category of Best Use of UI and UX design for the innovative S3WaaS (Secure, Scalable, & Sugamya website as a service) Framework
- NIC S3WaaS awarded Gems of Digital India 2018,
- MyGov received National Award for e-Governance – Gold in the year 2017
- Open Data Platform and the National Portal of India were both projects that received Gems of Digital India Awards 2017
- gov.in — The National Portal of India: India’s answer to single entry national portals, 2008
With your Grace, may all Prosper.
As an active follower of the principle “With your Grace May all Prosper”, she extends help to everyone in need, promoting personal happiness and health. She has been an ideal leader for her colleagues, with a keen understanding of their situation and supports them with the right guidance. She intends to work after her superannuation for the women and child development programs/groups apart from contributing to girl child education.
She says, “one must educate their women colleagues on financial independence, finance management, self-confidence, stress management, and health. One must also prioritise educating less privileged women on savings, education, and health while providing job opportunities and financial support for single mothers and widows.”
