> Case Study

Serving a Billion+ Citizens: High-Performance, Multilingual Portal for Government project with Infosys

4 min read

Drupal

Data

Multilingual

Overview

This large government financial department needed a robust, accessible, and performance-optimized public-facing portal to serve millions of taxpayers across the country. With content updates happening daily, increasing demand for multilingual access, and strict compliance requirements, the team set out to rebuild a platform that would be scalable, secure, and user-friendly - especially for a diverse citizen base accessing it from mobile and low-bandwidth environments. Our mandate was to deliver a high-availability content portal, optimized for scale, performance, and multi-language content publishing - all while enabling seamless backend workflows for editorial teams spread across departments.

Objective

The Department aimed to solve key challenges across experience, accessibility, and scale:

Pan-India Content

Make key content — news, updates, FAQs, and tutorials — easily accessible in eight regional languages.

Editorial Efficiency

Empower multiple editorial teams to publish and manage content independently in their own languages.

Scalability & Speed

Ensure the platform remains fast and stable even with millions of concurrent users, especially during peak tax filing periods.

Flexible Content Experience

Enable non-technical teams to manage homepage layouts and surface urgent or high-priority content dynamically.

Secure, Automated Deployment

Use DevOps best practices like CI/CD pipelines for safe and predictable feature releases.

Governance & Compliance

Maintain tight control over approvals and publishing workflows, ensuring accountability at every stage.

Our Solution

We collaborated with a large global SI and built the new portal on Drupal, selected for its flexibility, enterprise-grade security, and multilingual publishing capabilities — all critical for a large-scale government deployment.

Multi-Language Content Management

We integrated deeply with a language service provider. In addition, each regional team was given dedicated editorial access with language-based permissions to update the content further. The CMS allowed content creation in eight Indian languages, supporting localized experiences while maintaining central control.

Custom Editorial Workflows

We implemented role-based editorial workflows for language-specific teams — enabling editors, reviewers, and approvers to collaborate efficiently while ensuring content accuracy and compliance.

Layout Builder for Homepage Control

A no-code layout builder allowed internal teams to dynamically update homepage sections - whether promoting a new tutorial, highlighting deadlines, or pushing urgent notifications.

High-Performance Architecture

To handle millions of concurrent users, we implemented a scalable infrastructure backed by Content Delivery Networks (CDNs). This ensured fast, consistent load times nationwide — even in remote and low-connectivity areas.

CI/CD Pipelines for Deployment Efficiency

All changes - from content structure to design tweaks - were pushed through a CI/CD pipeline enabling automated, error-free deployments, minimizing downtime and developer bottlenecks.

Accessibility

Screen Reader Friendly Coding was done keeping in mind that the website needed to be Screen Reader friendly. Audits were done to make certain of this.
A Dark Mode was introduced to the website to make it easier for content to be read and viewed.
Font Size Icons allowing for the user to increase or decrease the font size was also made available, to facilitate readability.
A Mobile-First approach was taken while designing the UI, and has resulted in the portal being Responsive.
Multilingual Platform in every sense of the word. Both the UI and the Editorial Interface have been painstakingly converted to different vernacular languages, allowing for people all over India to be able to interact with the Platform.

GIGW Compliance

Our implementation fully adheres to the Government of India’s Guidelines for Indian Government Websites (GIGW) to ensure maximum inclusivity, security, and reliability.

Responsive and Consistent User Interface
Designed to work seamlessly across desktops, tablets, and mobile devices, delivering a consistent, brand-aligned experience regardless of screen size or platform.
Accessibility for All (WCAG 2.1 AA Compliance)
Fully accessible to all users, including persons with disabilities, in line with international WCAG 2.1 AA standards and GIGW accessibility mandates. This includes clearly labelled form fields, alternative text for images, robust keyboard navigation, and screen reader compatibility to promote digital inclusivity.
Robust Security and Data Privacy
Infrastructure and application security are reinforced through mandatory security certifications, HTTPS implementation, strong encryption for data at rest and in transit, and well-defined privacy and security policies as specified by GIGW. All user data is handled with strict adherence to confidentiality and integrity requirements.
Structured Content Governance
Includes clearly defined content review workflows, timely updates, archival processes for outdated materials, and compliance audits. This ensures that content remains accurate, relevant, and up-to-date as per GIGW content management guidelines.
All changes, from content structure to design tweaks — were pushed through a CI/CD pipeline enabling automated, error-free.

Results

The portal has become a high-impact, citizen-facing platform with nationwide reach and resilience:

Millions of users served concurrently with zero downtime, even during filing season peaks.
8-language content management enabled smooth publishing across diverse regional audiences.
Faster updates to homepage and news sections through layout builder - reducing IT dependency.
CI/CD-driven deployments cut down release times from days to hours, with full rollback capabilities.
Role-based workflows brought structure, accountability, and transparency to government publishing processes.
Improved mobile experience led to a measurable increase in time-on-site and resource consumption, even on low-speed networks.