The Ministry of Electronics and IT (MeitY) has issued a draft National Data Governance Framework to mobilise non-personal data of citizens for use by both public and private entities to improve services.

The draft policy proposes the launch of a non-personal data based India datasets program and addresses the methods and rules to ensure that non-personal and anonymized data from both government and private entities are safely accessible by the research and innovation ecosystem.

Minister of State for Electronics and IT Rajeev Chandrasekhar said the National Data Governance Framework is of interest for artificial intelligence (AI) startups, AI research entities and government departments. “Its imp piece of policy framework thats being devlopd to catalyze #India’s $1 Trillion #DigitalEconomy,” he tweeted.

Asking stakeholders to comment on the draft framework, the minister said the National Data Governance Framework will also accelerate digital government and digitisation of government with common standards, rules and guidelines for data storage and management across all departments. The draft said during the COVID-19 pandemic, digital governance played a big part in India’s resilient response to the pandemic and its impact on lives, livelihoods and the economy.

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In the post-COVID era, digitisation of government is accelerating faster and data generation is also increasing exponentially which can be used in turn to improve citizens’ experience and engagement with the government and governance as a ‘Digital Nagrik’.

The digital government data is currently managed, stored and accessed in differing and inconsistent ways across different government entities, thus attenuating the efficacy of data-driven governance, and preventing an innovative ecosystem of data science, analytics and AI from emerging to its full potential, the draft said.

“The power of this data must be harnessed for more effective Digital Government, public good and innovation, thus requiring a National Data Governance Framework Policy (NDGFP),” draft said.

The proposed policy will be applicable to all government departments and entities and rules and standards prescribed will cover all data collected and being managed by any government entity. It proposed to cover all non-personal datasets and data and platform, rules, standards governing its access and use by researchers and startups.

“State Governments shall be encouraged to adopt the provisions of the Policy and rules, standards, and protocols as applicable,” the draft said.

The draft also proposes setting up of an ‘India Data Management Office (IDMO)’, under the Digital India Corporation, which shall be responsible for framing, managing and periodically reviewing and revising the policy.

“The IDMO shall be responsible for developing rules, standards, and guidelines under this policy that shall be published periodically,” the draft said. MeitY has fixed June 11 as the deadline for submission of comments by stakeholders on the draft available on its website.

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(Edited by : Sudarsanan Mani)