The central government is planning to develop a new data governance framework to allow for the flow of enormous volumes of data between government departments, a strategy that would improve governance efficiency, transparency, and accountability.
The draught national data governance framework and policy will establish protocols and standards for how government entities process, store, and disseminate data within the larger government ecosystem.
According to reports, Minister of State (MoS) for Electronics and Information Technology Rajeev Chandrasekhar said: “As we are increasing the digitisation of government, we need to create a harmonised setup for the whole government for data management. This will allow government and government departments to better design and better target efficacy of public spending programmes, be it in infrastructure or in service delivery.”
He also stated that a consistent approach to how laws are developed is required, and that this framework lays out the architecture and institutionalises data collection, storage, access, and anonymization protocols for information included inside the government ecosystem.
The policy will be shared for public discussion before it is finalised.
The draught policy’s goals are to increase citizen awareness, participation, and engagement with open data, increase the availability of national-level datasets, identify datasets suitable for sharing, and improve overall compliance with secure data sharing and privacy rules and standards, according to the draught policy.
It will also be the first step toward ushering in the digital government age, which will allow for better, more informed decision-making while adhering to the highest data protection standards and a commitment to data privacy principles.
Internet Freedom Foundation (IFF) trustee Apar Gupta reportedly said: “It seems like a broader policy for data governance as has been outlined in sections 1 and 2 [of the new policy], but the sections forward are similar to the policy draft shared in February. But it is not clear how the two policies will interrelate.”
The India Data Management Office (IDMO) would be in responsibility of establishing the National Data Governance Framework’s rules, standards, and recommendations, which will be published on a regular basis, according to the policy.
IDMO will produce all data/datasets/metadata rules, standards, and guidelines in conjunction with ministries, state governments, and industry. IDMO will also organise at least two semi-annual consultations and report carding meetings for this purpose, with state governments and industry represented, according to the policy.
However, Chandrasekhar said: “What you’re seeing today are the building blocks of the overall architecture for the next 10 years of India’s tech economy. The IDMO will be accountable to make sure that the standards of anonymisation are set and that they do not permit any de-anonymisation.”
