The long-term objective of the National Informatics Centre, as approved by the Planning Commission, Ministry of Finance and the Electronics Commission, is ‘to establish the feasibility of a system for the provision of detailed information to government ministries and agencies to assist them in making decisions relating to the country’s economic and social development planning and programme implementation’. (Annual Report of the Department of Electronics, Government of India, 1977-’78,p172.)

NIC was set up with the objective to promote economic, social, scientific and technological activities, and also for macro-economic adjustment programme of the Government, through the applications of IT.