The department of electronics and information technology (DeitY) is looking to frame a policy (pdf) for adopting and developing open application programming interfaces (APIs) in government organizations to promote software interoperability for all e-governance applications & systems. The policy shall be applicable to all central government organizations and to those state governments that choose to adopt the policy. DeitY also said that all information and data of a government organisation shall be made available by open APIs, as per the National Data Sharing and Accessibility Policy and adhere to National Cyber Security Policy. Policy points - Each published API of a Government organization shall be provided free of charge whenever possible to other government organizations and public. - Each published API shall be properly documented with sample code and sufficient information for developers to make use of the API. - The life-cycle of the open API shall be made available by the API publishing Government organisation. The API shall be backward compatible with at least two earlier versions. - Government organizations may use an authentication mechanism to enable service interoperability and single sign-on. - All Open API systems built and data provided shall adhere to GoI security policies and guidelines. Our take: This is a welcome move by the government and needs to be implemented effectively. This would allow anyone to build a website or an application and pull government information into the public domain. Everyone knows navigating a government website can be nightmarish. For example, Indian Railways provides open APIs which enabled the development of applications such…
