Guidelines for implementation of open API Policy by Amit Jain, Senior Consultant(Technology Management), President & CEO, NeGD

1. GUIDELINES FOR
IMPLEMENTATION OF OPEN API
POLICY
Amit Jain
Senior Consultant(Technology Management)
President & CEO, NeGD

2.  API is a set of functions and procedures that other applications can
use provided they are running under the same technology stack in
which APIs are developed.
 Open APIs allow calling procedures, functions or services
developed in one type of technology on a website onto another
application running on another website in different technology.
 Open API enables machine-based interaction between the
websites using REST (Representational State Transfer), SOAP,
JavaScript and other web technologies.
Open application programming interface (API)

3.  Government is a large enterprise, many a times services of one
department depends upon services of others.
 Collaboration and Horizontal Integration
 As of now, minimal horizontal integration amongst departments
 APIs facilitates departments to share data and services
 APIs allow architecture to scale out horizontally
 Seamlessly integrated services across departments and
jurisdictions is USP and hallmark of ‘governance and services on
demand’ vision area of Digital India.
Need for open APIs

4.  Open Architecture
 Allows communication between different technologies
 Allows different Gateways & Applications to interact
 Focus on core functionality
 Enables departments to focus on core functionalities
 Interoperability
 Enables Interoperability and integration among e-Governance system
Advantages of open APIs

5.  Independent: They are stand alone and self contained entities.
 Interface: They use interfaces to provide services to their consumers.
Interface Definition Languages (IDL) are designed.
 Web Services Definition Language is the IDL for SOAP
 Android Interface Definition Language is the IDL for Android Operating
System
 Deployable: They can be deployed straightaway without recompilation.
They are in binary form.
Characteristics of open API SERVICES (1/3)

6.  Composable: They can be included in the workflow.
Example: Opening a bank account involves say four steps:
 Verifying Address by using APIs of Election Commission of India
 Verifying PAN by using APIs of Income Tax Dept.
 Assigning a new A/C No.
 Storing applicants information into the database
Characteristics (2/3)

7.  Documentation: A complete documentation on Interfaces including interface
syntax, its methods, their attributes and exceptional messages should be
available.
Elements Specifications
IDL Web Services Definition Language, Android IDL,
Microsoft IDL, Apache Thrift
Protocols Http, FTP (File Transfer Protocol), Socket,
SOAP(Simple Object Access Protocol), REST
(RepreSentational State Transfer)
Data Format XML, CSV (Comma Separated Values), JSON(Java
Script Object Notation: Name Value Pair)
Communication Mode Synchronous/Asynchronous
Quality of Service Guaranteed delivery
Authorization Open Auth Protocol
Characteristics (3/3)

8.  Citizens: The citizens can see their data by straight away fetching it
from the source
 Registered Govt Users/Departments
 Copy of the data to Authorized users
 Services in both synchronous and asynchronous mode can also be
given.
 Registered Private Users/Agencies: On agreed payment terms and
conditions-
 Copy of the data to Authorized users can be given
 Services in both synchronous and asynchronous mode can also be
given
 Assign User Ids, grant access rights and authorization Code.
Open API Users

9. • Police verification for passport
• Details of seized vehicle for Transport
• Accidents details with insurance
companies
Police
• Vehicle and driver details with Traffic
police for issuing challans
• Details of vehicle sold with Insurance
companies
Transport
• Tax payers details with Banks for loan
approvals and opening bank accounts.PAN
Key services that can be shared

10.  Front end App captures Aadhaar & Biometric and forwards the encrypted packet to KUA
 KUA creates the full KYC XML and passes to KSA
 KSA forwards the KYC XML to Aadhaar eKYC API
 If Biometric auth is successful, API responds with encrypted demographic data and
photograph to KSA
 KSA sends the packet to KUA which forwards it to Front end App
Source: http://uidai.gov.in/images/aadhaar_kyc_api_1_0_final.pdf
Open API Based Aadhaar eKYC

11.  Sharing Methodology
 SSDG/MSDG
 MCA 21, eBiz Gateway
 Message Format
 XML
 Communication Protocol
 SOAP
 Mode of Communication
 Synchronous/Asynchronous
 Deployment Strategy
 Java and Dot Net Connector
Current Status of Service Sharing

12.  Create a Directory of Open API containing list of services of
different departments.
 Allow Service Consumers to discover Open APIs on taxonomy
based categories.
 Enable service providers and consumers to interact on peer to peer
basis or through a central message routing platform
 Provide joined up service for related service types
 Provide Business Analytics and Reporting Engine as part of Open
API platform for better planning to Service Providers.
Implementation Guidelines for Open API

13.  Universal Description, Discovery & Integration (UDDI) is an XML-
based standard for describing, publishing, and finding API’s.
 Three types of information into the directory -
 White Pages: Contains Basic information about the contact details of persons
of line ministries and departments.
 Yellow Pages: It uses service identification taxonomies and codes to make it
easier for departments and line ministries to search for services
 Green Pages: This category contains technical information about an API
offered.
API Publication Directory

14. Service Owner Specify the Department / Authority
Service Provider Basic contact information including development
agency name, address, contact phone number
Service Workflow Specify the details regarding how the service
request should be submitted (e-Forms etc.)
Service Request
Details
Specify the details required to request the service –
e.g. data elements of the application form
Service Levels Specify the service levels
FAQ Include an FAQ addressing the common queries.
API Publication

15. Service
Provider
Service
Consumer
E-Gov API Portal
Dept 1
Dept 2
Dept 3
Dept 4
Dept 5
Govt.
Dept
Citizen
Busines
s
Open API Directory
(search)
API Manager
(Integration)
Management /
Analytics/Reporting
Module
Developer Module
(Define & Configure API,
Documentation)
Service Orchestration
Module (Hub & Spoke)
Security
Security
Open API Platform

16. Open API Interactions

17.  Provide Joined up services on the API platform to consumer by linking few
related back end services into a single service
 Provide a simplified and composite request form to consumer for joined
up services
 Create intelligent business logic to make process flow decisions based on
the inputs provided by consumer on the service form
 Manage SLA’s with all back end service providers.
Joined Up Services

18.  Provide APIs for pushing transaction logs to the central API platform
 Central API platform will provide statistics on usage of different services
to service providers.
 Service Providers can use them for planning ICT Infrastructure
 They may use the analysis for creating additional instances or new
smaller applications for heavily used services to ensure SLA Compliance.
 Reports can be generated for collection of fee.
Business Analytics Engine

19. THANK YOU