Data Governance Framework To Enable Startups To Access Non-Personal, Anonymised Data: Govt

The draft National Data Governance Framework is currently being finalised by the government, Minister of State (MoS) for Electronics and Information Technology Rajeev Chandrasekhar informed the Parliament.

“The policy aims to provide an institutional framework for data/datasets/metadata rules, standards, guidelines and protocols for sharing of non-personal data sets while ensuring privacy, security and trust”, Chandrasekhar said responding to a question in the Lok Sabha. 

The policy would enable ‘research and innovation ecosystem’ to safely access non-personal and anonymised data from both government and private entities, he added. 

In a response to a question about operations of the India Data Management Office (IDMO), Chandrasekhar said that the IDMO will closely coordinate with specific ministries and state governments to standardise data management in each ministry.

He further said that the IDMO will build up capacity and capabilities in each government arm to create more non-personal datasets for use by the public.

“…it will accelerate inclusion of non-personal datasets housed within ministries and private companies into the India Datasets program,” the minister said.

The New Data Governance Framework

The draft bill calls for establishment of the IDMO, which draws parallels from the US Federal Data Management Office. The office will oversee the formulation of all specific standards and guidelines on all aspects of data storage and data anonymisation.

As per the draft, data management units (DMUs) headed by a chief data officer (CDO) will also be set up in all ministries and will be responsible for the implementation of the data governance policy.

The policy also envisages private companies sharing non-personal data with startups as part of the new framework. 

This MeitY has said that the new framework is aimed at catalysing the AI-led startup ecosystem in the country.

Earlier last month, Chandrasekhar said that the framework was aimed at “standardising government’s data collection and management, while catalysing AI and data led research and startup ecosystem”.

A previous version of the policy was criticised by internet activists and civil society members over bid to monetise non-personal data gathered from citizens. Afterwards, that draft was rescinded and a new framework was unveiled under its current name.

The draft framework was released for public comments on May 26 this year and may be finalised soon.