Counselling Bodies

1. Purpose & Scope

Purpose: This Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) lays down the standardized, transparent, and secure process for onboarding Central and State Government Departments, Agencies and autonomous bodies intending to avail eCounselling and Examination Services from the National Informatics Centre (NIC)

Scope: This SOP shall be applicable to:

- Ministries and Departments of the Government of India
- State Government Departments and Counselling Authorities
- Autonomous Bodies, Boards, and Statutory Organizations

2. Key Definitions

User Department

Central/State Government department, agency, or body requesting NIC eCounselling Services

PMU (Project Management Unit)

NIC unit responsible for onboarding review coordination and monitoring

StRS

Stakeholder Requirement Specifications – Approved document capturing finalized functional and technical requirements

Onboarding Portal

NIC’s digital platform for submitting and tracking onboarding requests

3. Roles and Responsibilities

Stakeholder	Responsibilities
User Department	Initiate the onboarding request through the Onboarding Portal Provide complete and accurate requirement details Approve the StRS and release financial payments to NICSI Conduct User Acceptance Testing (UAT)
NIC (eCounselling Div)	Conduct requirement analysis and prepare the StRS Configure, customize, test, and deploy the solution Provide technical support and application maintenance
PMU & NICSI	Scrutinize requests (PMU) Generate Proforma Invoices (NICSI)

4. Standard Process Workflow

1. User Request: Initiation via Portal
2. MoU: Between NIC, NICSI & User
3. Development: STRS Acceptance, Configuration
4. Clearance: UAT , Security Audit, GIGW Clearance
5. Launch: Application Launch , Support
6. Closure: Project Signoff , Final Invoice

USER ON-BOARDING