Digital India has allocated over ₹1.5 lakh crore across phases for digitising government services, building connectivity infrastructure, and promoting digital literacy. For IT companies, system integrators, and tech startups, Digital India tenders represent one of the largest sustained government IT procurement programmes globally.
Major Digital India Components
- BharatNet — optical fibre to all 2.5 lakh gram panchayats. Network equipment, fibre laying, last-mile connectivity. Multiple phases ongoing.
- Common Service Centres (CSCs) — 5+ lakh CSCs delivering government services digitally. Hardware, software, and service delivery tenders.
- e-Governance projects — state-level e-district, e-court, e-hospital, e-prison implementations. Software development and deployment.
- UMANG / DigiLocker — unified mobile app and document storage platforms. API integration, mobile development, and infrastructure.
- National Data Centres — NIC data centres and state SDCs. Server procurement, networking, cooling, and facility management.
- Cyber security — CERT-In, National Cyber Coordination Centre. Security tools, audit services, SOC operations.
Who Procures
- MeitY (Ministry of Electronics and IT) — central flagship projects, NIC infrastructure
- State IT departments — e-governance implementations, state data centres, citizen service portals
- NIC (National Informatics Centre) — government application development, network infrastructure
- CSC SPV — Common Service Centre Special Purpose Vehicle manages CSC ecosystem procurement
- BSNL / BBNL — BharatNet fibre network construction and equipment
Tender Types
- System integration — end-to-end project implementation including hardware, software, networking, and training. Large contracts (₹50–500 crore).
- Software development — custom application development for government departments. Often QCBS evaluation.
- Cloud and hosting — MeghRaj (Government Cloud) empanelment. Cloud service providers must be empanelled by MeitY.
- Hardware procurement — desktops, laptops, servers, networking equipment through GeM with PMA (Preferential Market Access) compliance.
- Managed services — O&M of government IT infrastructure. 3–5 year contracts with SLA-based penalties.
Getting Started
- Get empanelled on MeitY's list of eligible IT companies for government projects
- STQC (Standardisation Testing and Quality Certification) testing is often mandatory for IT hardware
- Register on GeM for IT product sales and smaller project bids
- ISO 27001 and CMMI certifications are frequently required for software and security projects