Page 19 - GIGW2

Guidelines

for Indian Government Apps & Websites

experience of the authors in design, development and management of Government
Websites as well as their knowledge of the ground realities and challenges faced by the
Government Departments in developing and managing their websites have helped
significantly in drafting these Guidelines.

These guidelines are being circulated amongst all Indian Government Departments at all
levels (Central, State, District). These should be followed and implemented on priority so
that the overall aim of making all Indian Government websites citizen focused and visitor
friendly may be realised.

1.5
How to use these Guidelines

Departments are expected to read, understand and implement these guidelines on all
of their web-based initiatives. In other words, all the websites set up and owned by
the Departments must comply with these guidelines. It is advised that even Intranet
applications of the Departments, which are mostly browser based, should follow these
guidelines. The Departments may draw their short term and long term timelines,
depending upon their specific requirements, for compliance with these guidelines.

1.6
Mandatory, Advisory and Voluntary

Guidelines are divided into three categories viz. mandatory, advisory and voluntary.
Explanation and requirement of each of these categories is given as follows:

• Mandatory: The usage of the term ‘MUST’ signifies requirements which can
be objectively assessed and which the Departments are supposed to mandatorily
comply with. It is anticipated that there will be no exceptions for a Department
not complying with these. In the case of any Department, these guidelines shall
apply to all the WebPages/websites under the ownership of that Department.
The websites will be checked against these guidelines when audits for compliance
are undertaken or for the purpose of quality certification. It is the responsibility
of each Department to address and bring into compliance, any non-compliant
issues found in any website under their ownership.

• Advisory: The usage of the term ‘should’ refers to recommended practices or
advisories that are considered highly important and desirable but for their wide
scope and a degree of subjectivity these guidelines would have otherwise qualified
to be mandatory. Departments are, however, expected to comply with these
advisories.

• Voluntary: The usage of the term ‘may’ refers to voluntary practice, which can be

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