Dr. Neeta Verma, Director General – National Informatics Centre

Dr. Neeta Verma, Director General, National Informatics Centre (NIC), a premier technology organization of the Government of India has been instrumental in implementing large-scale challenging digital initiatives of the government throughout the country.

With a career spanning over three and a half decades, she brings extensive experience and has led the launch of Open Data Platform to release government data open for the public good.

Read on to know her exemplary career journey and success in the field of technology.

Establishing a Successful Career in Tech

Neeta Verma holds a PhD from the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi and an Executive Certificate on Digital Transformation in Government from the Harvard Kennedy School. Her research interests include emerging technologies applications in Cyber Security, Data Centers, Governance, etc.

At the onset of her career, Neeta used to offer consulting services to various government departments in India and abroad to establish their web presence.

She has successfully implemented her vision to transform government initiatives, services and schemes by applying technology. In the process, she supported the National Informatics Centre to emerge as a trusted partner for State Governments and the Central government of India.

Under her able guidance, NIC has established National Data Centers at different locations in India. Later, she initiated the launch of the first National Cloud for Government in 2014 to provide state-of-the-art ICT on-demand infrastructure to Government Departments for the delivery of citizen services.

She has also led citizen engagement activities by employing technology at different levels of governance. She had set up a technology platform for MyGov, which is a crowdsourcing and citizen engagement platform with 14+ million citizens. She has formulated a Government Open Data License (GODL).

A Technocrat in Public Service

Neeta Verma is spearheading the Digital Transformation agenda as the Director-General of NIC by creating digital platforms for various government initiatives in different sectors of development. She also worked closely with the Indian Judiciary for the digital transformation of all the courts pan India.

Since the mobile revolution is booming throughout the country, she is focusing on bringing government services on mobile phone platforms to offer a Mobile-First Strategy for all the NIC initiatives.

Neeta has worked aggressively to initiate the adoption of Cloud for various Government departments by creating Cloud-First Strategy. It is developed to provide agility and scalability, reduce the commissioning time, and bring in the high order efficiency in ICT initiatives of the government.

She has established one-of-its-kind Centres of Excellence (CoEs) in Data Analytics, Artificial Intelligence, Application Security, Micro Services, and Blockchain in-line with the government mandate. These CoEs are established to explore these emerging technologies appropriate for governance and delivery of citizen services.

She played a key role to set up the NIC CERT (Cyber Emergency Response Team) in the year 2017.  Under her direct administration, 800+ NIC offices are established from Central headquarters in Delhi to District and State Offices of India.

Neeta has channelled NIC teams in the productization of its popular solutions. She has also helped NIC to establish its software products such as eOffice, eAuction, eTransport, eHospital, eProcurement, and many more.

Extended Support during the Pandemic

Under her leadership, NIC has entrusted her with the responsibilities of the development and execution of various technology-enabled solutions that can help the government and its citizens during the COVID-19 crisis.

Several novel mobile applications were developed by NIC developed to cater to the specific needs of various State and Centre Government departments.  These mobile applications were developed for the management of COVID Hospitals, Containment Zones, Home Quarantine and Digital Transfer of Subsidy to migrant labourers across the country, and other such initiatives.

The project of ‘Aarogya Setu’, a mobile application that ensures citizens’ safety for tracing the contact during the pandemic was entrusted to her by the Government of India.  Aarogya Setu app became the top government mobile application in India with more than 170 million downloads. The development of the mobile app for RT-PCR to manage the COVID-19 test-related data across India was also led by Neeta.

She has extended her advice and support to various national institutions such as the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), and Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) during the pandemic. Under her supervision, Central Data Hub was also established to ensure the integration of various systems and secure data exchange among different government IT systems pan India.

Recognitions

In 2019, she got featured among the ‘Top 55 Inspiring Women around the World’ for contributions in the Information and Communication Technology domain. She is a regular invitee of various national and international forums and conferences to provide awareness around technology in e-Governance.

REVA Academy for Corporate Excellence, REVA University has selected Neeta Verma for ‘Top 10 Women Tech Leaders India Awards 2021’ in association with Terralogic Inc. and co-sponsored by CloudxLab.  Neeta Verma is selected for this esteemed award because of her relentless efforts and initiatives for a digital India that benefitted millions of people during the pandemic times.