NASSCOM feedback on the draft India Data Accessibility and Use Policy

Terms of use

Terms of Use

The use of this site and the content contained therein is governed by the Terms of Use. When you use this site you acknowledge that you have read the Terms of Use and that you accept and will be bound by the terms hereof and such terms as may be modified from time to time.

All text, graphics, audio, design and other works on the site are the copyrighted works of nasscom unless otherwise indicated. All rights reserved.
Content on the site is for personal use only and may be downloaded provided the material is kept intact and there is no violation of the copyrights, trademarks, and other proprietary rights. Any alteration of the material or use of the material contained in the site for any other purpose is a violation of the copyright of nasscom and / or its affiliates or associates or of its third-party information providers. This material cannot be copied, reproduced, republished, uploaded, posted, transmitted or distributed in any way for non-personal use without obtaining the prior permission from nasscom.
The nasscom Members login is for the reference of only registered nasscom Member Companies.
nasscom reserves the right to modify the terms of use of any service without any liability. nasscom reserves the right to take all measures necessary to prevent access to any service or termination of service if the terms of use are not complied with or are contravened or there is any violation of copyright, trademark or other proprietary right.
From time to time nasscom may supplement these terms of use with additional terms pertaining to specific content (additional terms). Such additional terms are hereby incorporated by reference into these Terms of Use.

Disclaimer

The Company information provided on the nasscom web site is as per data collected by companies. nasscom is not liable on the authenticity of such data.
nasscom has exercised due diligence in checking the correctness and authenticity of the information contained in the site, but nasscom or any of its affiliates or associates or employees shall not be in any way responsible for any loss or damage that may arise to any person from any inadvertent error in the information contained in this site. The information from or through this site is provided "as is" and all warranties express or implied of any kind, regarding any matter pertaining to any service or channel, including without limitation the implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-infringement are disclaimed. nasscom and its affiliates and associates shall not be liable, at any time, for any failure of performance, error, omission, interruption, deletion, defect, delay in operation or transmission, computer virus, communications line failure, theft or destruction or unauthorised access to, alteration of, or use of information contained on the site. No representations, warranties or guarantees whatsoever are made as to the accuracy, adequacy, reliability, completeness, suitability or applicability of the information to a particular situation.
nasscom or its affiliates or associates or its employees do not provide any judgments or warranty in respect of the authenticity or correctness of the content of other services or sites to which links are provided. A link to another service or site is not an endorsement of any products or services on such site or the site.
The content provided is for information purposes alone and does not substitute for specific advice whether investment, legal, taxation or otherwise. nasscom disclaims all liability for damages caused by use of content on the site.
All responsibility and liability for any damages caused by downloading of any data is disclaimed.
nasscom reserves the right to modify, suspend / cancel, or discontinue any or all sections, or service at any time without notice.

For any grievances under the Information Technology Act 2000, please get in touch with Grievance Officer, Mr. Anirban Mandal at data-query@nasscom.in.

New

See all

No notification found.

NASSCOM feedback on the draft India Data Accessibility and Use Policy

Jayakumar Selvaraj

@Jayakumar

March 24, 2022

Public Policy

375

In February 2022, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MEITY) had published a draft “India Data Accessibility and Use Policy” (IDAUP) for feedback from stakeholder. Earlier this week, NASSCOM submitted its feedback to the MEITY on the IDAUP.

The IDAUP aims to establish a new governance framework on the sharing of non-personal data in the public sector. We captured the broad contours of the IDAUP in a previous blog that can be found here.

We believe that the IDAUP’s success will depend upon how the balance is struck between improving data access, enhancing data quality, facilitating data reuse, and mitigating risks to privacy or security. With the aim of striking this balance better, we offered our feedback, keeping in mind the aim of ensuring that the IDAUP can create significant value for governance, research, transparency, and innovation in India. A summary of our recommendations are as follows:

Objectives and principles: Though the objectives and data sharing & governance principles in the IDAUP are prima facie valuable, they are broadly worded and are not articulated as quantifiable outcomes against which future performance can be measured. We suggested that the IDAUP would be benefitted by a deeper discussion into why they were selected and how they are reflected in the proposals that follow. We also suggested examining global reference points to determine whether more suitable objectives and principles can be considered.
Scope: The IDAUP states that it will apply to all “non-personal data and information” that is “created/generated/collected/archived by the Government of India directly or through authorized agencies by various govt bodies. In this context, we suggested that the IDAUP should primarily apply to data that is created, generated, or commissioned by covered public entities using public funds. Further, we suggested that the IDAUP should only apply to anonymised data after due care has been taken to ensure identifying information has been removed and that other safeguards to preserve privacy have been implemented.
Jurisdictional overlap: It is likely that the IDAUP will impact the operation of existing laws on government records and existing open data policies currently in force mostly notably the NDSAP. In this context, we suggested that the interplay between the IDAUP and the NDSAP should be clarified in terms of scope and implementation.
Institutional framework: The IDAUP envisages MEITY establishing two new institutions: an India Data Office (IDO) and an India Data Council (IDC) accompanied by a support unit. We suggested that dedicated full-time personnel should be appointed to the roles of the India Data Officer and the Chief Data Officers, and the policyshould clarify the division of responsibilities and functions and the hierarchies across the envisaged institutional framework.
Identification and classification of data: The IDAUP envisages covered public entities identifying and classifying non-personal datasets available them along three categories - open, restricted, or non-shareable. In this context, we suggested that the IDAUP should include a formal definition of HVDs or at least lay out the principles based on which HVDs may be identified.
Data sharing, portals, and retention: We suggested that the IDC should be tasked with creating common minimum standards for data and metadata for government data owners to follow. Further, it should define templates, strategies and best practices to ensure data quality, interoperability, accessibility, adequate documentation, and the use of open-source and machine-readable data formats. MEITY should also consider proposals for the release of dynamic data sets. Learnings from the operation of existing open data portals should be considered when setting out such templates, strategies, and best practices.
Licensing: The IDAUP briefly mentions the development of licensing frameworks to incentivise data sharing with external stakeholders. We suggested that these be limited solely for the purpose of recovery of marginal costs, be aligned with open-source copyright licensing frameworks, and not be used to enter into exclusive arrangements.
Anonymisation and privacy safeguards: The IDAUP envisages anonymisation as the principal tool to ensure the preservation of privacy. We suggested that an independent working group with multi-stakeholder participation should be established by MEITY to frame reference anonymisation standards, tools, and decision-making frameworks. Further, the IDAUP would be benefitted by a deeper discussion into additional privacy-preserving technologies and measures and to avoid a “release-and-forget” approach to data sharing.
Need for phased implementation: The IDAUP states that detailed implementation guidelines will be brought out by MEITY in the form of an implementation manual. We suggested that the IDAUP would benefit from a structured implementation plan that scales its proposals in stages – perhaps by first identifying priority HVDs, then identifying the relevant data providers, and then scaling slowly to other datasets.

For more detail, please refer to our submission which is attached herewith.

For any queries or concerns, please contact S Jayakumar (jayakumar@nasscom.in); Varun Sen Bahl (varun@nasscom.in); or Apurva Singh (apurva@nasscom.in).

data

Disclaimer

That the contents of third-party articles/blogs published here on the website, and the interpretation of all information in the article/blogs such as data, maps, numbers, opinions etc. displayed in the article/blogs and views or the opinions expressed within the content are solely of the author's; and do not reflect the opinions and beliefs of NASSCOM or its affiliates in any manner. NASSCOM does not take any liability w.r.t. content in any manner and will not be liable in any manner whatsoever for any kind of liability arising out of any act, error or omission. The contents of third-party article/blogs published, are provided solely as convenience; and the presence of these articles/blogs should not, under any circumstances, be considered as an endorsement of the contents by NASSCOM in any manner; and if you chose to access these articles/blogs , you do so at your own risk.

Download Attachment

Jayakumar Selvaraj

Jayakumar

Member Connect Monthly Digest - Jul...

Member Connect Updat..

Newsletters

18 Sep 2024