On Monday, the central government published a draft data policy that proposed that all data collected, generated, and stored by every government ministry and department will be open and shareable by default unless it is categorized under the negative list of datasets. According to the draft data policy, all central government and state governments will be sharing data to create a common “searchable database.” It was suggested as a way to curb duplication of data processing efforts and enable better delivery of public services.
The policy document, called “Draft India Data Accessibility & Use Policy 2022,” was released by the Ministry for Electronics and IT (MeitY) and is now up for public consultation till March 18th.
The draft policy states that a regulatory body called the Indian Data Council (IDC) and an agency named the India Data Office (IDO) will be set up by MeitY to streamline and consolidate data access and sharing of public data repositories across the government and other stakeholders. That means that every ministry and department will have Data Management Units headed by Chief Data Officers who will work with the IDO to make sure that the Data Accessibility and Use Policy is appropriately implemented. The council will be responsible for defining frameworks to identify high-value datasets, finalizing data and metadata standards, and enforcing the policy. And the nomination of departments and state governments in the IDC will be by rotation with a tenure of two years for one department.
The policy aims to “enhance access, quality, and use of data,” in line with the current and emerging technology needs. The policy also stated that the IDO would work with line ministries, states, and other schematic programs to find out high-value data (HVDs) housed within these areas. HVDs will be defined based on their importance in the market, the degree of socio-economic benefits, impact on India’s AI strategy, and performance on important global indices.
“India’s ambitions of becoming a $5 trillion digital economy depends on its ability to harness the value of data. Considering this, the India Data Accessibility and Use Policy aim to enhance access, quality, and use of data in line with the current and emerging technology needs of the decade,” said the document.
As specified by the draft policy, through the IDO, stakeholders like startups, other enterprises, individuals, and researchers will access enriched data through data licensing, sharing, and valuation within data security and privacy frameworks. However, the policy has kept the private sector out of any mandatory data sharing with the government. According to a government official, startups and enterprises can refer to the shared data supply for their business, and private companies can voluntarily contribute to this data reserve.
State governments can also adopt the provisions and publish domain-specific metadata and data standards. It also said that the Indian Data Council would finalize data standards that cut across domains. Once completed, it will be followed by all concerned government departments and ministries. The central government also hinted at monetizing data; the policy stated that to promote innovation, minimally processed datasets shall be made available at no cost but for restricted datasets, and specific detailed datasets that have undergone value addition and transformation will be priced appropriately by the owner government ministry or department.
Edited by- Subbuthai Padma
Published by- Radhika. N
