ICT

ROADMAP
Information & Communication
Technology (ICT)

INDIAN COUNCIL OF AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH

NEW DELHI
www.icar.org.in
Printed: October, 2021

© 2021 All rights reserved

Indian Council of Agricultural Research,
New Delhi

Compilation by:
Information & Communication Technology (ICT) Unit ICAR, New Delhi
Information Technology (IT) Unit, ICAR-IASRI, New Delhi

Guidance:
ICAR – ICT Steering Committee
ICAR – ICT Implementation & Operational Management Committee

Design & Production:

Punit Bhasin, Incharge, Production Unit, DKMA

Published by:
Dr. S. K. Singh, Project Director, Directorate of Knowledge Management in
Agriculture, Indian Council of Agricultural Research, New Delhi and printed at
M/s. Royal Offset Printers, A-89/1, Naraina Industrial Area, Phase-I,
New Delhi 110028.
 FOREWORD

T he Government of India has started a Digital India Mission with

a view to transform India into a digitally empowered society
and knowledge economy. It is envisaged to provide ICT based
citizen centric services and efficient e-governance system to bring
about transparency, accountability and efficiency in all sectors of
economy. As a leader of one of largest and institutionally complex
agriculture research systems in the world, the Indian Council of
Agricultural Research (ICAR) is developing various ICT tools
and systems to digitally empower agriculture researchers, policy
makers, extension workers and farmers with a view to transform
the entire eco-system of agricultural research and education in the
country.
In view of 761 million internet users in the country, which are
likely to grow up to 975 million by 2025 along with 469 million
mobile users with internet connectivity, the development of web-
based online system is the need of the hour. The ICT road map
of ICAR has been prepared to develop online web enabled ICT
tools/software/system for providing efficient e-governance. The
road map has also a provision of development of ICT/IT system
to support quality research output through data analytics, train
human resources on latest emerging IT/ICT technologies and
development of efficient and effective communication system
for extension workers/farmers to disseminate agricultural
technologies and knowledge generated from huge network of
agricultural research institutions in the country. ICAR has already

vii
 a KVK portal on which 721 Krishi Vigyan Kendras (KVKs) across
the country are connected. Besides, mapping of all KVKs to
more than 3.5 lakhs Common Service Centers of the Ministry of
Electronics and Information Technology, Government of India
has been done for use in dissemination of latest agricultural
technologies and various services offered by the ICAR Institutes.
The present ICT road map developed by the Council will not only
help in accelerating these processes and establishment of two-
way communication system among different stakeholders with
the Council but also support agricultural technology innovations
based on disruptive ICT technologies such as Machine Learning
(ML), Deep Learning (DL), Artificial Intelligence (AI), Blockchain;
Internet of Things (IoTs) and Big Data Analytics.
I would like to congratulate the team responsible for preparing
a comprehensive ICT road map. I do hope that the envisaged road
map would be used as a guide for development of ICT tools and
software in future for use in agriculture and allied sectors.

Dated the 13th July, 2021 (T. Mohapatra)

New Delhi

viii
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Indian Council of Agricultural Research
(Department of Agricultural Research & Education)
Krishi Bhawan, New Delhi 110001

PREFACE

T he Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), New

Delhi is one of the largest research, education and extension
network of agriculture in the World. ICAR conducts, promotes,
supports and coordinate research, education and extension across
the country in the field of agriculture. In order to empower
and support agricultural research and its e-Governance. ICAR
developed various digital platforms. Recently, number of ICT
initiatives has been taken by the Council in line with Digital India
Mission, Government of India, with a vision to transform Indian
agriculture in to digital empowered knowledge economy. In
order to develop and implement various software and tools at the
national level for agricultural research, education and extension,
IT/ICT infrastructure has been created, such as, Advanced Super
Computing Hub for Omics Knowledge in Agriculture (ASHOKA),
ICAR Data Center, Krishi Megh etc. by the Council. In effort to
consolidate and strengthen their ICT initiatives for improving
efficiency, transparency, monitoring of various activities and
optimization of IT/ICT resources, an ICT Roadmap of ICAR has
been prepared by M/s. KPMG India in October, 2018. Most of the
recommendation of this ICT Roadmap was generic in nature and
needs further elaborations.
After detailed discussion on recommendations of this report,
it was decided to further refine this ICT Roadmap by taking a
holistic view of the requirement of the Council and available
resource to cater specific needs in future. Also, there is a need to
elaborate IT/ICT system requirements in view of short, medium
and long-term goals with specific timeline. In this context, this ICT
Roadmap of ICAR has been prepared taking into consideration

ix
the recommendations of the above report and requirements of
the Council, elaborating the need of structural re-organization for
effective implementation of IT/ICT activities in the Council. This
Roadmap also provides the direction of unification, coordination
and monitoring of various existing system in the Council for their
effective and optimum utilization.
We would like to express our gratitude to Secretary, DARE &
DG, ICAR for providing his guidance, critical inputs and support
for development of this ICT Roadmap. The direction and support
provided by Addl. Secretary, DARE & Secretary, ICAR, DDGs of
the Council, ADGs, Director, ICAR-IASRI, New Delhi and PD,
DKMA, New Delhi were very useful for development of this
document. Thanks, were also due to the staff of ICT Unit of the
Council and IT Unit of ICAR-IASRI, New Delhi for providing
their support in publication of this document. This ICT Roadmap
will be helpful in implementation, coordination, monitoring of
various IT/ICT systems effectively in the Council.

(Anil Rai)
Assistant Director General (ICT)
ICAR, Krishi Bhawan
New Delhi 110001

x
 contents

Page No.
Message of Hon’ble Minister of Agriculture & Farmers’ Welfare iii
Message of Hon’ble Minister of State for Agriculture & Farmers’ Welfare v
Foreword vii
Preface ix
1. Introduction 1
2. e-Governance Policy of Government of India 3
3. ICT Roadmap of ICAR 6
4. Objective 9
5. Organization 11
5.1 ICT Functional Groups (FGs) 11
5.2 FG-1 Infrastructure 11
5.3 FG-2 Software Development 13
5.4 FG-3 Software Standards and Quality Assurance 14
5.5 FG-4 Implementation, Operational Maintenance
and Support 15
5.6 FG-5 Data Management and Data Analytics 16
6. Implementation, Management and Monitoring 18
6.1 Standing Committee 19
6.2 ICT Steering Committee 19
6.3 Implementation and Operational Management
Committee (IOMC) 20
6.4 Flow Chart of ICT: Levels of decisions making 22
7. ICT Targets / Milestones 25
8. Manpower 26
8.1 Permanent Staff 26
8.2 Contractual Manpower 27

xi
 Abbreviations

DARE : Department of Agricultural Research and Education

ICAR : Indian Council of Agricultural Research

IASRI : Indian Agricultural Statistics Research Institute

ICT : Information & Communication Technology

IT : Information Technology

MeITY : Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology

DST : Department of Science & Technology

RA : Research Associate

SRF : Senior Research Fellow

CAPS : Cyber Agro-physical System

LMS : Learning Management System

API : Application Programming Interface

UI : User Interface

EHRMS : Electronic Human Resource Management System

UX : User Experience

OLAP : Online Analytical Processing

ETL : Extract Transform and Load

AI : Artificial Intelligence

IOT : Internet of Things

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 ICT-Roadmap

1
Introduction

Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) is an autonomous

organization under the Department of Agricultural Research and Education
(DARE), Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Government of
India. Formerly known as the Imperial Council of Agricultural Research,
it was established on 16 July 1929 as a registered society under Societies
Registration Act, 1860 in pursuance of the report of the Royal Commission
on Agriculture. The Council is the apex body for co-ordinating, guiding
and managing research and education in agriculture, including horticulture,
fisheries and animal sciences in the entire country. The Indian Council of
Agricultural Research (ICAR) has the largest network with 69 Institutes, 6
Bureaux, 23 Project Directorate and Agricultural Technology and Application
Research Institutes (ATARI), 15 National Research Centres, 74 Agricultural
Universities and Deemed Universities spread across the country. The ICAR
has played a pioneering role in ushering Green Revolution and subsequent
developments in agriculture in the country through its research and
technology development, which made visible impact on the national food and

ICAR Headquarter Krishi Bhawan New Delhi

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 ICT-Roadmap

Computer Centre, ICAR-IASRI, New Delhi

nutritional security. It is also playing a major role in promoting excellence

in higher education in agriculture. Scientists of the Council are working in
cutting edge areas of science and technology development. The Indian Council
of Agricultural Research (ICAR) and the National Agricultural Research and
Education System (NARES) at large, are determined to harness advances of
science for the welfare of society. The Council is committed to transform itself
into an organization engaged fully with the farmers, industry, entrepreneurs
and consumers at large.
Information and communication technology has been playing vital role
in Indian economy, accordingly emphasis has also been given to the usage of
information and communication technology in the evolution of agricultural
research in India. Government of India has started and visualized Digital India
Mission with a vision to transform India into a digitally empowered society and
knowledge economy. In order to transform the entire ecosystem of agriculture
research, education and extension through the use of information technology,
the ICAR has launched number of agricultural research and digital programs
in the country with a vision to transform and enable digitally empowered
services.

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 ICT-Roadmap

2
E-Governance Policy of
Government of India
Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (Meity) has taken
several policy initiatives in e-Governance domain that are crucial for achieving the
vision and objectives of the Digital India programme. Effective implementation
of e-Governance is a key component of the Digital India programme. This
cover number of important areas such as open source software, open APIs,
e-mail policy, use of IT resources, collaborative application development and
application development & re-engineering for cloud ready applications. These
policies are envisaged to provide necessary support to all Central Ministries /
Departments / autonomous bodies as well as all States / UTs in leveraging the
emerging technologies, making use of the newer business models. The existing
projects were revamped so as to deliver services electronically to citizens in an
efficient, transparent and affordable manner. These policies draw their strength
from national and international best practices in the respective domain as well
as inputs from subject matter experts from Government departments, industry

Eight Pillars of Good Governance

3
 ICT-Roadmap

Training Centre, ICAR-NAARM Hyderabad

and academia. The basic aim of these initiatives is (i) easy governance, (ii)
effective governance and (iii) good governance. It also provides the key
principles for revamping the existing projects and also for new and ongoing
e-Governance projects. The “Policy on adoption of open source software for
Government of India” will encourage the formal adoption and use of Open
Source Software (OSS) in Government organizations. The compliance to this
policy will ensure that strategic control of e-Governance assets that would
remain with the Government and would ensure business continuity for the
projects in future from a technical perspective.
The “Framework for Adoption of Open Source Software in e-Governance
Systems” suggests a set of recommendations and procedures for promoting,
managing and enhancing the adoption of OSS in e-Governance Systems in
India. It highlights the impact of adoption of OSS in Government, influencing
factors, the mutual impact of Open Standards and OSS, establishing enterprise
security with OSS, unified software development for all major devices using
standards-based web browser and use of localization. The Framework suggests
neutral guidelines to select software and the process for induction of OSS solution.
The ecosystem suggested to promote the adoption of OSS describes required
institutional mechanism, collaboration with key stakeholders like industry,
OSS communities, academia, collaborative mechanism, offering of services
based on OSS, provisioning of support services on OSS and integration with
on-going initiatives. The “Policy on Open Application Programming Interfaces
(APIs) for the Government of India” 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. This policy initiative will

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 ICT-Roadmap

encourage the formal use of Open APIs in Government organizations. The

world-wide initiatives on “Open Government” also focus on open APIs to
easily access the information collected by Government organizations. The
“E-mail Policy of Government of India” lays down the guidelines with respect
to use of e-mail services by the Government departments and organizations.
The policy initiative aims to ensure the secure access and usage of
Government of India e-mail services by its users and is applicable to all
employees of the Government of India (GoI) and employees of those State/
UT Governments that use the e-mail services of GoI. The “Policy on Use of IT
Resources of Government of India” provides the guidelines to ensure proper
access to and usage of Government’s IT resources and prevent their misuse
by the users. This policy initiative covers all IT resources, including desktop
devices, portable and mobile devices, networks including wireless networks,
Internet connectivity, external storage devices and peripherals like printers and
scanners and the software associated therewith.
The “Policy on Collaborative Application Development by Opening the
Source Code of Government Applications” intends to increase the pace of
e-Governance application development and rapid rollout/implementation
by adopting an open-source based development model. The Government of
India wants to promote re-use of existing developed applications. By opening
the source code, the Government wants successful, scalable, high quality
e-governance applications to be developed in a collaborative manner. It also
wants new applications to be developed to encourage creativity both inside and
outside the Government by encouraging collaborative development between
Government departments / agencies and private organizations, citizens and
developers to create innovative e-Governance applications and solutions.
The “Application Development & Re-Engineering Guidelines for Cloud
Ready Applications” aims to address one of the major concerns in the
e-Governance domain, that is lack of process reengineering and leveraging
of the latest emerging technology i.e. Cloud. This guideline intends to ensure
development of Common Application Software (CAS) which can be configured
as per different States / departments requirements without need of modifying
the core code of the application for a faster deployment so that time, effort
and cost in developing applications are saved and to avoid duplication of
efforts. It is therefore imperative that applications are developed in conformity
to guidelines that makes them standardized and compatible for hosting and
running across states.

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 ICT-Roadmap

3
ICT Roadmap of ICAR

In view of the Digital India initiative and various policies of Government

of India, there is strong need to align / re-adjust ICAR e-governance / ICT
initiatives in line of Government guidelines. In this regard, ICAR initiatives
to reach out the farmers / villages is gaining momentum through the
development of KRISHI portal, KVK portal, Management Information
Systems (MIS), Decision Support Systems (DSS), Expert Systems (ES) etc.
Further, development and implementation of Artificial Intelligence / Machine
Learning (AI / ML) based approach, several digital applications such as web
application, web sites, web portals, mobile apps etc. are helpful to the farmers
through integrating scientific inputs to improve their farming practices. The
Council has also established supercomputing platform, ASHOKA and ICAR
data Centre to support agricultural research, education and extension. It also

ASHOKA - The First Super Computing Hub in Agriculture

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 ICT-Roadmap

provides unified communication system including dedicated email services,

website, application etc. Apart from this, Council is in the process of initiation
of various major initiatives on innovative science-led approaches in achieving
the goal of Doubling Farmers’ Income by 2022 such as Precision Agriculture,
Cyber Agro-physical System (CAPS) development and National Mission on
Artificial Intelligence (AI) etc.
ICAR adopted an open access policy and there are various e-initiatives
across institutes along with digital collection of resources such as collection
of books, journals, thesis, research articles, popular articles, monographs,
catalogues, conference proceedings, success stories, case studies, annual
reports, newsletters, pamphlets, brochures, bulletins and other grey literatures
from various ICAR institutions and State Agricultural Universities (SAUs).
Apart from this, ICAR has implemented number of digital solutions for office
automation, reporting and management systems for effective e-governance
in the organization. Some of the major systems in this regard are e-office
NISAGENet, PIMS, PermisNet, ICAR-ERP, HYPM, FVMS, PMS, PGS, CBP
etc. In view of changes in technology and information requirement not only by
the Council but also from the Government, these systems need to be revisited
and integrated. Also, consolidated effort is needed to create a central repository
of all analytical tools and software(s) for better management and utilization in

Digital Systems of ICAR

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 ICT-Roadmap

e-Governance in ICAR

line of Government of India Digital policy. This will help researchers and other
stakeholders to have easy accessibility and availability of accurate information
from a single platform. Further, there is a need to have the manpower of the
desired skill set, trained through specialized capacity building programmes in
specific and latest areas such as data science, block-chain technology, cloud
computing, parallel programming, big data analytics and management, web
/ mobile computing, advance computing etc. These programs will enable the
Council to handle the future upcoming requirement of ICT.
It is desired to create and strengthen core IT cadre for identifying the
changes required in adopting ICT initiatives for developing, upgrading,
updating, monitoring and managing various ICT enables programmes through
regular meetings with Subject Matter Divisions (SMDs) at Council level to
ensure the delivery of precise and accurate information to the end users. In
order to improve the organization and implementation of ICT in ICAR, there
is a need to reorganize and strengthening ICT activities in the Council.

8
 ICT-Roadmap

4
Objective

The objective of this roadmap is to establish the ICT Unit at ICAR HQ

for development, implementation, monitoring, management and coordination
of ICT services and digital platforms as per IT / ICT guidelines / policies of
Govt. of India. This unit will also be responsible for providing all technical
and logistic support required in major ICT research and development projects
in different ICAR institutions. Further, there is need to create an IT Unit in
ICAR-IASRI, New Delhi under direct supervision of Director, ICAR-IASRI,
New Delhi.

ICAR-IASRI, New Delhi

The Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Unit has been

set up through renaming the e-governance cell of the Council. This will
improve the coordination and implementation of digital resource management
and advisory service platform in line with Government of India, instead of
working in isolation. Some of the digital e-governance solutions developed by
the Government are to be rollout by the Council with required customization,
such as e-office, eHRMS, Learning Management System (LMS), Digital

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 ICT-Roadmap

Locker etc. This requires strong collaboration with Meity and NIC apart from
providing training and skill development of the staff in the Council for uniform
implementation of these systems across different institutions. The ICT unit will
also guide ICAR institutes to enrich their digital platforms as well as repositories
through dedicated five Functional Groups led by respective Group Leaders.
These groups is being created by the Council at IT Unit at ICAR-IASRI, New
Delhi. The Group Leaders of these functional groups is to directly report to
Director, ICAR-IASRI New Delhi and reviewed by ADG (ICT) of ICT Unit in
ICAR HQ. These groups were formed by leveraging existing officials in ICAR,
hiring contractual staff and outsourcing routine services.

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 ICT-Roadmap

5
Organization

All ICT related work of development, implementation and operational

management in the Council will be divided into following groups / categories.
These groups are proposed as per common standard practices of ICT followed
globally. A separate IT Unit will be created in ICAR-IASRI, New Delhi, under
which these functional group will be made operational. The In-charge of this
IT unit will directly report to Director, ICAR-IASRI, New Delhi and reviewed
by ADG (ICT), ICAR New Delhi.

5.1 ICT Functional Groups (FGs)

Each group will be headed by a Group Leader. These functional groups
will be further sub-divided into sub-groups based on functional requirement.
In each of these sub-groups project staff may be hired on adhoc basis as per
requirements for a particular time period.

5.2 FG1 - Infrastructure

The infrastructure functional group will look after all requirements related
to the establishment, implementation, operations and day to day maintenance
of all equipment/hardware system, software, storage including cyber security.
The group will also be responsible to ensure the connectivity of the internet
to all ICAR institutes. This group will monitor, manage and maintain all
Non-IT resources to run these IT
infrastructures. The ICAR data centre
and ASHOKA will be maintained and
managed by ICAR-IASRI, New Delhi
and upcoming Disaster Recovery Data
Centre will be managed by ICAR-
NAARM, Hyderabad. The maintenance
and operational management services
of these major infrastructures of the
Council will be outsourced. These
institutes will ensure the availability ICAR Date Centre at ICAR-IASRI, New Delhi

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 ICT-Roadmap

of IT resources to the ICT / IT

Unit as per requirement and
coordinate with the ICT Unit
for smooth functioning of the
systems. All Web services hosted
in the Data Centre need to be duly
approved by the Council / ICT
unit, as this will ensure quality
of the desired information which
Krishi Megh, ICAR-NAARM, Hyderabad will be Reaching to the end users
/ stakeholders.

5.2.1 Role and Responsibilities

yy Requirement specification of equipment / hardware and system software.
yy Establishment / Implementation, Monitoring and Operational management
of IT and Non-IT systems and sub-systems for their smooth functioning.
SG1 - Network Management
yy Responsible for smooth functioning of network.
yy Internet connectivity and bandwidth management.
SG2 - System Management (Web server/database/cloud etc.)
yy Manage and maintain web hosting, web server management, virtualization.
yy Installation, upgradation and upscaling of Database(s).
yy Deployment of cloud and other upcoming solutions to implement and
provide infrastructure, platform and system software to the end users.
SG3 - Cyber Security
yy Maintain and monitor firewall and other security services.
yy Monitor and implement the antivirus and resolve all issues of cyber threats.
SG4 - Storage Management
yy Maintain and monitor the storage requirement and its health.
yy Manage and upgrade the storage as per the requirement.
yy Update and upgrade the storage quota and allocation.
SG5 - Non-IT Resource Management
yy Management of Non-IT resources of the infrastructure.
yy Ensure the proper supply and maintenance of infrastructure.
yy Any other requirement for smooth operation of data centre environment.

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 ICT-Roadmap

5.3 FG2 - Software Development

This group will collect requirements for the development of software and
other related services, which is to be approved by the ICT Steering committee.
This group will be also responsible to undertake all software development
activities, including preparation of Software Requirement Specification (SRS)
document, which will help in the development of application software, portal,
mobile apps., API and web services development including UI / UX design.
This group will ensure that the development will follow the Government of
India as well as software engineering guidelines, principles and standards.
These standards will be useful during the integration of various data sources
and ensure the interoperability. This will have bigger network of various human
resources. If required, a platform for software development will be created
cutting across ICAR Institutes. This network may use IT human resources and
services of other ICAR Institutes.
5.3.1 Roles and Responsibilities
yy All projects meet overall planning objectives and specific key performance
indicators as determined by the Council.
yy The group will design and develop systems in the development environment
by ensuring the quality standards and interoperability of the product and
responsible to get certification from quality assurance and testing group for
its release. This group will also develop the SRS for requirement analysis.
SG1 - UI / UX Design
yy Design of responsive web design interface, screen, layout etc.
yy Design of logos, images, header etc.
SG2 - Application Development
yy Design and development of the standalone and web-based software.
yy Manage, maintain and monitor the source code repository / library.
yy Maintain the interoperability across various applications.
yy Standardization through API and web services development.
SG3 - Web Portal Development
yy Development of web portal.
yy Technology specific and cross platform development.
SG4 - Mobile App Development
yy Mobile app development.
yy Upgradation of mobile apps.

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 ICT-Roadmap

SG5 - API and Web Service Development

yy Compliance of standards and ensure inter-operability.
yy API development.
yy Web services development.
5.4 FG3 - Software Standards and Quality Assurance
The role of this group is to prepare data standards, metadata, architecture
blueprint, strategies, policies and its upgradation. The group will also be
responsible for testing of the developed product by following testing standards
earlier mentioned to meet the quality of the product. The group will be
responsible for design, develop and upgrade the architecture based on the
upcoming technologies and development.
5.4.1 Roles and Responsibilities
yy Development of ICT guidelines, policy and procedures.
yy Data standards and metadata management.
yy Quality control and testing.
yy Software evaluation of IT products.
yy Promoting the adoption of new technologies.
yy Capacity building and training.
SG1 - Standardization of Data and Meta Data Management
yy Define and develop the data standards.
yy Primary data management.
yy Development of coding standard and master data management.
yy Develop and maintain the meta data repository.
yy Meta data schema design, development and maintenance.
yy Meta Data acquisition and catalogue management.
SG2 - Technical, Solution and Enterprise Architects
yy Design the product specific technical architecture.
yy Design and proposed the overall solution architecture, including hardware.
yy Design the enterprise architecture and maintain uniformity.
SG3 - Quality Assurance and Testing
yy To test the developed application.
yy Prepare the testing report and quality checks.
yy Checking the standard procedure and master data management, including
naming conventions.

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 ICT-Roadmap

SG4 - Capacity Building and Training

yy To develop the plan for capacity building.
yy To train the human resource and sensitize the users.
yy To organize and conduct in-house as well as off-shore trainings.
5.5 FG4 - Implementation, Operational Maintenance and Support
The Implementation, operational maintenance and support group will be
responsible for end-to-end project implementation activities for the completed
software product related to ICT initiatives taken up by the Council. The group
will work towards the adoption of change management strategy. The project
implementation will be done in terms of the current requirement and use of
IT related projects to be implemented in ICAR and various other institutes of
the Council.
5.5.1 Roles & Responsibilities
yy After compliance of a digital product from quality assurance and testing
group, the system will be delivered to implementation, operational
management and support group. Minor bugs will be fixed by this group. The
deployment of the new feature or major improvement will be implemented
by this software development group.
yy Ensure that all projects meet overall planning objectives and specific key
performance indicators as determined by the Council.
yy The co-ordination of regular progress meetings at local level and
representing the Council at the national progress meetings.
yy The associated project management and administration will be taken over
by this group after completing testing and quality assurance. The product
will be implemented at the required level as specified in the project
document.
yy The activities will also include:
ŠŠ Hosting institute’s website and developed solutions and applications
ŠŠ Content management of the websites and web portals
ŠŠ Technical and operational support to the end users
ŠŠ Act as change management catalysts at the centres
SG1 - Implementation
yy Implement the software and application at institute level
yy Content management and other social media platform updates
yy User creation, management and maintenance

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 ICT-Roadmap

SG2 - Operations and Support

yy To provide all support in the ICAR with dedicated helpdesk.
yy Responsible for efficient daily and routine IT operations of organization &
institutes.
SG3 - Maintenance, Upgrade and Services
yy Responsible for preventive maintenance and corrective maintenance
yy Upgrading of ICT infrastructure.
yy Maintenance and smooth operations of the services
yy Updates the services with respect to software, hardware at various level
SG4 - Change Management
yy Ensure adaptability and implement change management
yy Take the corrective actions for implementation of these changes
5.6 FG5 - Data Management and Data Analytics
The data analytics and data management group will be responsible to keep
an eye of emerging technologies of ICT which can be leveraged in agriculture
sector. This group will also integrate various data sources, generate scenario
using OLAP, perform analytics, data modelling and visualization of data
through exploration.

5.6.1 Roles and Responsibilities:

yy Discovery, analysis, adoption and implementation of emerging technologies
in the organization and institutes.

Kisan-Sarathi Portal

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 ICT-Roadmap

yy Introducing and implementing an innovative idea / project to meet

stakeholders’ requirement.
yy Bringing perceptible improvement in processes or systems through
analytics.
yy Preparedness / performance / operations continuity in emergent situations
like disaster.
SG1 - Database Management and Administration
yy Database design and management.
yy Database backup and restore.
yy Query management and maintenance.
SG2 - Data Integration
yy Standards for data integration.
yy Interoperability for data exchange.
yy Cross domain integration and analysis.
yy Scenario Building.
SG3 - Data Warehousing and visualization
yy Schema design.
yy Design and Development of ETL tools.
yy Design and development of dashboards.
yy Agricultural Intelligence.
SG4 - Statistical Computing and Data Science
yy Statistical Computing.
yy Machine Learning and AI.
yy Big Data Analytics.
yy Cloud Computing.
yy Internet of Things (IoTs).
yy Modelling and Simulation.

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6
Implementation, Management
and Monitoring
A Standing Committee of ICT and Emerging IT Technologies in ICAR,
New Delhi will be created under ICAR By Laws. This will be apex committee
which be responsible for formulations of ICT policies, roadmap and provide
directive to align / re-adjust IT research and development as per requirements
of agricultural research priorities along with development of management,
monitoring and evaluation system of agriculture research in ICAR to make
it more relevant, effective, transparent and accountable in line of national
priorities. The objectives of this committee will be:
yy To provide policies, roadmap and directives for applications of ICT and
emerging / disruptive IT technologies in ICAR.
yy To provide directive to align / re-adjust IT research / tools / software /
systems with agricultural research priorities to make it more relevant and
effective in line of national priorities.
yy To monitor implementation of ICT / IT services, tools, software and systems
for management, monitoring and evaluation of agriculture research in
ICAR to make it transparent and accountable.

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6.1 Standing Committee

Chairman: Director General (DG), ICAR, New Delhi.
Members:
yy Secretary, ICAR.
yy Three Deputy Director Generals of ICAR nominated by DG ICAR, New
Delhi with term period of three years.
yy Two Directors of other ICAR Institutes on rotation basis with term period
of two years.
yy One IT Expert not below Joint Secretary nominated by DG National
Informatics Centre, New Delhi or one IT Expert not below Joint Secretary
from Ministry of Electronics and IT, Govt. of India, New Delhi nominated
by Secretary of the Department.
yy Two Experts from body of registered Association / Society / Trust of
Government / IT Industry, National Public / Private Institution, Private IT
Firms etc. nominated by DG ICAR, New Delhi .
yy Other invited Members invited from academia / industries / NGOs / as per
requirement.
yy Member Secretary, ADG (ICT).
A Steering Committee will be constituted which will ensure implementation,
monitoring and evaluation of ICT policies, roadmap and directives of the
Standing Committee. The role and responsibilities of this committee are to
implement policy decisions, monitoring of all ICT activities in the Council as
well as in Institutes. The committee will meet twice in a year to discuss issues
and latest developments including new initiatives.
6.2 ICT Steering Committee
Chairman: Secretary DARE and DG, ICAR
Members:
yy Secretary, ICAR.
yy All DDGs of the council.
yy ADG (PIM, IR, TC, IP&TM).
yy Director, ICAR-IASRI, New Delhi.
yy Director, ICAR-NAARM, Hyderabad.
yy Project Director, DKMA, New Delhi.
yy Three Directors of other ICAR Institutes on rotation basis with term period
of two years.
yy Member Secretary, ADG (ICT).
yy Other Invited Members.

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6.2.1 Role and Functions

yy Identification and approval of new ICT initiatives to be taken up by the
Council as per directives of Standing Committee.
yy Identification and approval of research program for development ICT /
IT tools / software / systems in areas to support agricultural research
and development in the Council in the field of emerging and disruptive
technologies.
yy Coordination and guidance among different ICT / IT programs and
programs based on emerging / disruptive IT technologies across different
SMDs of the Council.
yy Monitoring different ICT programs / initiatives and programs on emerging/
disruptive IT technologies at national level from time to time.
yy Providing guidelines and directives for collaboration with different national
and international Institutions / Organizations working in the field of ICT
and disruptive technologies in IT.
yy Identify and ensure resources required for implementation of national
level programs in the field of emerging / disruptive technologies in IT.
yy Identify and approve relevant area for capacity building in the field of IT /
ICT in the Council.
Powers
yy Assigning role and functions to different ICAR institutes to work in
a national program of importance in the field of ICT and disruptive
technologies of IT.
yy Allocations and monitoring of funds / budget to different projects and
programs in the field of ICT and disruptive technologies in IT.
yy Initiation of new programs / projects or dis-continue currents program /
project as per directives of Standing Committee
Frequency of Meeting
yy Normally twice in a year. However, meeting shall be called any time as per
requirement.
6.3 Implementation and Operational Management Committee
(IOMC)
Implementation and Operational Management Committee will be set
up, which will provide overall support of ICT initiatives at Council / SMD /
Institute levels. The preparation of IT related project would be responsibility
of the IOMC. It is suggested that the IOMC doesn’t change frequently as it will
bring stability and standardization in ICT practices at ICAR. This committee

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will have members representing all functional groups, including representatives

from other related Government Departments or Ministries as per requirments.
The composition of the committee will be as follow:
Chairman: ADG (ICT).
Co-Chairman: Director, ICAR-IASRI, New Delhi.
Members:
yy Leaders of all Functional Groups.
yy Director (Finance).
yy Director (Administration).
yy Head (Computer Application), ICAR-IASRI, New Delhi.
yy Invited members as per requirement.
yy Under Secretary, ICT Unit, Member Secretary.
6.3.1 Roles & responsibilities
yy This committee will be implementing ICT initiatives which is duly approved
by Steering Committee in the Council and manages its operations.
yy The committee shall plan, design, implement, maintain and support the
overall IT operations by implementing the IT framework to achieve the
ICAR vision, mission and strategic goals.
yy This committee's goal is to raise IT awareness and understanding among
organizations & institutes, provide tools and guidance so that institutes
would be able to meet IT requirements, expectations and IT risks could
be mitigated.
yy The committee will formulate and assign a change management plan,
whenever necessary. The committee will devise a plan to sensitize, educate
and train the users to ensure utmost adaptability of a system within ICAR.
yy The committee will formulate the plan for overall sustainability,
maintenance and upgradation of ICT infrastructure & framework.
yy The committee will invoke necessary guidelines, procedures, directions and
measures in case of a fall back, disaster to ensure organizational continuity
(Organization Continuity Program).
yy This committee will undertake regular (monthly) meetings to assess the
health of all the IT initiatives taken place and provide relevant guidance to
proceed.
yy Liaison and collaborate with industry experts on emerging technologies.
yy This committee will oversee all technology operations and evaluating them
according to established goals.

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Data Centre at ICAR-IASRI, New Delhi

6.4 Flow Chart of ICT: Levels of decisions making

FG = Functional Group, SG=Sub-Group

yy The implementation plan of ICT activities in ICAR will be taken up in

phased manner. The basic IT and non-IT infrastructure required to run
various services will be maintained and managed by respective institutes
i.e. ICAR-IASRI, New Delhi and ICAR-NAARM, Hyderabad.
yy A separate IT Unit will be created in ICAR-IASRI, New Delhi that will work
directly under Director, ICAR-IASRI, New Delhi, work in coordination
with ADG (ICT).

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yy The IT Unit at ICAR- IASRI, New Delhi will have five scientists working at
pay level 13 and above, 5 technical staff and one Assistant / UDC / LDC.
yy Five ICT Functional Groups, which were proposed above, will be created
in the IT Unit of ICAR-IASRI, New Delhi. The Scientist working in each
group will be the Leader of the group. The senior most group leader will
the In- Charge of the IT Unit. The In-charge of IT Unit will report to
Director, ICAR-IASRI, New Delhi and will be reviewed by ADG (ICT).
The ICT sub-groups under each Functional Group will be created as per
the requirement as proposed in the ICT Roadmap and these sub-groups
will work under the supervision of Group Leader of respective Functional
Group.
yy The Group Leader (GL) of each functional group will report to Director,
ICAR-IASRI, New Delhi. ADG (ICT), ICAR will be the reviewing
authority of these GLs of Functional Groups. Each sub groups will work
under supervision of GL of respective Functional Group.
yy The Group Leader of each Functional Group will be Scientists working at
pay level 13 or above.
yy An ICT Unit of ICAR, New Delhi will help in implementation, coordination
and monitoring of IT services to the Council and its institutes. This unit
will have a separate budget allocation through EFC.
yy The IT / ICT and Non-IT infrastructural facilities located in ICAR-
IASRI, New Delhi and ICAR-NAARM, Hyderabad will be managed and
maintained by outsourcing under supervision of a Principal / Senior
Scientist who will Lead the Infrastructural Functional Group with the help
of a team of scientists / technical identified by the Director of the respective
institute. The budget provision for the same will be made in the EFC of ICT
Unit.
yy ICAR-IASRI and ICAR-NAARM will assist the ICT Unit of the Council
for development, implementation, capacity building, management and
monitoring various IT / ICT activities in different ICAR institutes. The
contractual manpower for the same will be provided separately by ICT
Unit.
yy In order to ensure smooth functioning of the services, mainly emergency
services, there is a need to provide limited financial and administrative
power to Group Leaders of each Functional Group, which may be
equivalent to the Project Leaders / Principal Investigators of the externally
funded projects in the Council.
yy If needed be, IT based short duration project may be identified and
approved by the Steering Committee for its funding to different ICAR
institutes by the ICT Unit for fulfilling the requirement of the Council.

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yy The IT products developed by following the standard procedure and

guidelines specified by IOMC through different plan / project / scheme of
ICAR institutes may be considered for its implementation in service mode
as per the requirement of the Council.
yy A centralized 24×7 Helpdesk service center will be created at ICAR-IASRI,
New Delhi for all ICT services. This will work under Functional Group – 4
i.e., Implementation, Operational, Maintenance and Support.
yy ICAR may provide separate additional funds for maintenance and
management of IT based services to different institutes / centers for smooth
functioning for local IT based solutions / services required in the institute /
centers.

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7
ICT Targets / Milestones

The next 10 years’ tentative targets / milestones of the proposed ICT unit in
Phase-I (first two years), Phase-II (3 years after Phase-I) and Phase-III (5 years
after Phase-II) are as follows:
S. No. Activities Phase I Phase II Phase III
(2 years) (3 years) (5 years)
1. Development of Data standards and ICT
policies
2. Standardization of ICAR institutes
website and digital systems
3. Development of Dashboards
4. Implementation of e-office in ICAR
5. Implementation of e-HRMS
6. Development of FMS
7. Agricultural Research Management
System
8. Integration of existing systems (FVMS,
PMS, etc.) in ICAR Portal
9. Cyber Security Management
10. Maintenance of ICT infrastructure and
digital systems
11. Data Management and Data Analytics
12 Need based software and solution
development
13. Developing and integrating Digital
Information Network for Farmers
14. ICT action plan of Inter-Ministerial
committee on doubling farmers income
15. Coordination of digital agricultural
platforms
16. Precision Agriculture

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8
Manpower

The proposed ICT Unit at ICAR Hqrs., requires minimal Permanent

Scientific, Technical, Administrative / Financial and supporting manpower.
The IT Unit created at ICAR-IASRI, New Delhi, will have Scientists above Pay
Level 13 leading different proposed Functional Groups. These scientists will
be supported by technical staff. This IT Unit will majorly require contractual
staff with different level of expertise and experience, depending on IT / ICT
technological needs from time to time. In the field of IT / ICT, technological
changes are quite rapid and diversified, so it is not possible to recruit permanent
staff in each of these fields. Therefore, hiring contractual staff having different
expertise as per requirement will not only help the Council to develop digital
solutions on latest technologies, but also provide flexibility and efficiency in
the development of the different digital solution. The permanent staff will be
re-deployed in this Unit from already existing respective cadre of the Council
and there is no need for new recruitment.

8.1 Permanent Staff

The following table provides details of permanent staff requirement in ICT
Unit of ICAR, New Delhi and IT Unit of ICAR-IASRI, New Delhi.
S.No. Post Number
Permanent Staff at ICT Unit at ICAR Hqrs, New Delhi
1. Scientists working at pay level 13 or above 03
2. Technical 03
3. Under Secretory 01
4. FAO 01
5. Section Officer 01
6. Assistant / UDC / LDC 05

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S.No. Post Number

Permanent Staff at IT Unit at ICAR-IASRI, New Delhi
7. Scientists working at pay level 13 or above 05
8. Technical 05
9. Assistant / UDC / LDC 01

The capacity building of the permanent staff needs to be done regularly

to make them productive, effective and competitive in the latest ICT / IT
development.

8.2 Contractual Manpower

Functional Group wise Scientific and Technical contractual manpower will
be hired based on requirement from time to time. It has been contemplated
that maximum 50 contractual manpower of various category may be required
at present. These Functional Group may form network of available human
resources available in ICAR.
The hiring of contractual staff i.e. RA / SRF / Young Professional / IT
professionals on contract / ad-hoc basis will be done as per guidelines of
the Council and requirements. The qualification and experience of these
professionals may be modified based on requirements from time to time. The
contractual staff is to be hired by following ICAR/DST/GoI procedure as per
requirement and approval of the Competent Authority.

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