Monetise govt’s non-personal databases, recommends working group

Non-personal data held by government departments and ministries should be monetised through a marketplace called the India Dataset Platform for better decision-making and AI applications, a working group constituted by the electronics and IT ministry has recommended. HT Image The central repository will be “a unified national data sharing and exchange platform to enable various data sharing and exchange use cases of all stakeholders including but not limited to Central/State/UT Governments, public sector undertaking, private sector companies, industry bodies, MSMEs and startups, academia and researchers, civil society and media organisations, open technology communities, etc,” the working group said in a report released by the minister of state for IT Rajeev Chandrasekhar on October 13. The working group “will also encourage” non-government entities to contribute data sets to the IDP, the working group said. On IDP, the data providers will be able to control the licensing conditions, who has access to the dataset, and what is the nature of their access --- open access, restricted access or registered access.” Another working group, tasked with looking at the design of the national data management office, first proposed under the draft National Data Governance Framework in May 2022, recommended the management office be responsible for creating and operating the IDP. Pricing could involve one time access, limited access, or a subscription for regular access to updated data sets, the working group said.