Portals (Web Portals)

Definition; A portal is a specially designed website that collects information from different sources into a single platform and provides customized access to users.
It acts like a gateway to information, services, or applications.

Key Features of Portals

1. Single Access Point → One login for multiple services.
2. Personalization → Content shown depends on the user (student, teacher, farmer, etc.).
3. Integration → Combines information, news, email, databases, applications, etc.
4. Interactive → Provides tools like search, chat, e-learning, online forms.

Types of Portals

1. Horizontal Portals – General information for a wide audience. Example: Yahoo!, MSN.com
2. Vertical Portals – Focused on a specific domain/sector. Example: Agri-portal (mKisan), Health portals (Practo)
3. Enterprise Portals – For employees within an organization. Example: HR portal, Company intranet
4. Government Portals – Provide schemes, services & applications. Example: Digital India Portal, DigiLocker, Bharat Agritech Portal

Examples of Portals

• Education → SWAYAM Portal, ePathshala, National Digital Library of India (NDLI)
• Agriculture → mKisan Portal, AGRISNET, Farmer Portal (Govt. of India)
• Government Services → UMANG, e-District, DigiLocker
• Banking → SBI Online, HDFC NetBanking Portal
• Health → Ayushman Bharat Digital Health Portal

Fact for Exams

• A website is mainly for providing information, but a portal gives services + personalized content + user login access.
• Example:
  • Website → ICAR official site (info only)
  • Portal → SWAYAM (login, personalized courses, certificates)