Ministry of electronics and it released Draft India data accessibility and use policy
What is the news:
- The ministry of electronics and information technology has released the Draft India data accessibility and use policy 2022
- Stakeholders such as start-ups, other businesses, individuals, and academics will be able to access enriched data through data licencing, sharing, and valuation within the frameworks of data security and privacy, according to the proposed policy.
- All data and information generated, created, collected, or stored by the central government and authorised agencies shall be covered by the policy.
- The provisions of this policy, as well as the protocols, will be adopted at the discretion of state governments.
- The MeitY will establish the India Data Office (IDO) with the goal of streamlining and consolidating data access and sharing of public data sources across the government and other stakeholders.
- To encourage innovation and research and development, more minimally processed datasets will be made available for free.
Draft India data accessibility and use policy 2022
- Data is a valuable economic and social resource offering enormous opportunities for citizens, businesses, and governments.
- With increasing digitization and engagement, the volume of data is also increasing exponentially, providing opportunities for better governance, service delivery and innovation in sectors critical for societal transformation.
- India’s ambitions of becoming a $5 trillion-dollar digital economy depends on its ability to harness the value of data. Considering this, the India Data Accessibility and Use Policy aims to enhance access, quality, and use of data, in line with the current and emerging technology needs of the decade.
Objectives & Purpose
This policy aims to radically transform India’s ability to harness public sector data for catalysing large scale social transformation.
Any data sharing shall happen within the legal framework of India, its national policies and legislation as well as the recognized international guidelines. Such a robust data sharing ecosystem will be unlocked by:
- Maximising access to and use of quality public sector data
- Improving policymaking, evaluation, and monitoring
- Enhancing the efficiency of service delivery
- Facilitating the creation of public digital platforms
- Protecting the privacy and security of all citizens
- Streamlining inter-government data sharing
- Promoting transparency, accountability, and ownership in data sharing & release
- Building digital & data capacity, knowledge & competency of government officials
- Promoting data interoperability & integration to enhance data quality and usability
- Ensuring greater citizen awareness, participation, and engagement with open data
- Enabling secure pathways to share detailed datasets for research & development
- Increasing the availability of high-value datasets of national importance
- Improving overall compliance to data sharing policies and standards
Applicability
- This policy will be applicable to all data and information created/generated/collected/archived by the Government of India directly or through authorised agencies by various Ministries / Departments /Organizations / Agencies and Autonomous bodies.
- State Governments will also be free to adopt the provisions of this policy and the protocols as applicable.
Principles
The principles on which data sharing and governance need to be based include:
- Open by default
- Transparency in operations
- Interoperable, integrated & technology agnostic
- User-centred practices & systems
- Risk management over risk avoidance
- Trust among stakeholders, systems, and transactions
- Privacy & Security by Design
- Well-defined accountability for all stakeholders
- Equal and non-discriminatory access
- Regulatory clarity & structured enforcement
- Proactive data sharing for innovation & research
- Protection of Intellectual Property
Institutional Framework
- India Data Office (IDO) shall be set up by MeitY with an objective to streamline and consolidate data access and sharing of public data repositories across the government and other stakeholders.
- Every Ministry/Department shall have Data Management Units headed by Chief Data Officers which will work closely with India Data Office for ensuring implementation of the Data Accessibility & Use Policy.
- India Data Council – comprising of India Data Officer and Chief Data Officers of Departments of Government of India and State Governments – shall be constituted with an objective of undertaking tasks that requires deliberations across Ministries, Departments and State Governments. This shall include but not limited to defining frameworks for defining High Value Datasets, finalizing Data standards and Metadata standards as also reviewing the implementation of the policy. The nomination of Departments and State Governments in India Data Council shall be on rotation with a tenure of 2 years for one Department.
- The India Data Council will be supported by a dedicated support unit to coordinate data sharing across Ministries, provide technical support and periodically evaluate their performance.
- The India Data Office will coordinate closely with line ministries, states and other schematic programs to identify and accelerate access to high value data (HVD) housed with these custodians.
- Through the IDO, stakeholders including researchers, start-ups, enterprises, individuals and government departments will be able to access enriched data through mechanisms for data licensing, sharing, and valuation within the overall framework of data security and privacy.
Making Data Open by Default
- All data for every Government Ministry / Department / Organisation shall be open and shareable by default unless:
- Categorised under the negative list of datasets that won’t be shared.
- Categorised under restricted access and shared only with trusted users – as defined by the concerned Ministry/Department – under a controlled environment.