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How Data Governance Can Help Indian Startups Establish Data Integrity & Scale Up Safely

16 Feb'24 | By Inc42 BrandLabs

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Time and again, we have come across iconic superheroes providing ‘deliverance’ and revitalising humankind. But few ‘Dark Knights’ have defended ‘data’ as the world and its businesses undergo a digital transformation.

That’s because data governance (DG), a set of policies, processes and metrics to manage data across an organisation, is too complex a subject to make it to the reel world (fictional hackers and their nefarious projects are far more intriguing). So are fast-evolving compliance regulations, proactive risk management and the data-driven scaling model often pursued by aspiring startups.

However, the ‘guardians of data’ – CTOs, data scientists, compliance specialists and data protection officers – continue to play a pivotal role. They help businesses navigate the intricacies of data privacy, security and usability to optimise operations and ensure sound decision-making.

As data frameworks are the backbone of tech-driven companies and digital-first economies, these talking points are also impacting consumer mindsets. For instance, 68% of consumers trust businesses, which are transparent about their data privacy frameworks, according to a recent EY survey. On the other hand, 50% of the companies surveyed are yet to acquire relevant skills, although they are open to outsourcing data privacy tasks.

To dive deep into data governance and enable startups to design effective data management programmes for scaling up while maintaining data integrity, Inc42 and Databricks, a unified, open analytics platform, organised a roundtable titled How Data Governance Can Help Indian Startups Establish Data Integrity & Scale Up Safely under their 2-part series called Executive Boardroom: Laying The Foundation For Data & AI-Led Growth.

The session covered many critical topics, including:

Avenues of data governance for early stage startups
Decoding the impact of India’s data policies on startups
Key criteria for selecting a data platform

The roundtable brought together a host of tech decision-makers and industry leaders specialising in data protection, security and data-driven growth. Among them were Praveen Kumar Kalwagadda, vice-president of engineering at Cashfree Payments; Ankit Choudhary, head of data practices at Shadowfax; Vikas Garikipati, director of product at LetsTransport; Sagar Kumar, head of engineering (payments) at PayU; Rizurekh Saha, head of product (automation and generative Al) at Yellow.ai; Vinay Rai, senior vice-president of cloud and engineering at Netradyne; Ved Antani, chief product and technology officer at BetterPlace; Krithika Muthukrishnan, chief data science officer at Scripbox; Shriharsha Prakash, vice-president of cloud operations and security at LeadSquared, and Pramod Rajagopal, head of solutions architecture at Databricks.

The session was moderated by Abhinav Johri, a partner at EY. He is responsible for the development and activation of cloud and digital solutions and also manages P&L (profit and loss) in those areas.

How Custodians Of Data Can Steer Startups Towards Data Best Practices

Technology decision-makers at early stage startups typically focus on product-market fits and go-to-market strategies. However, setting up a robust data governance framework from the beginning is crucial as the complexities of data management increase when an organisation scales up.

“For a young startup, a zero-trust (never trust, always verify) model for access and application from the start is crucial. Retrofitting such models into your platform becomes challenging when you achieve significant scale,” said Ved Antani of BetterPlace.

Startups should also stay abreast of critical data protection regulations, such as the (EU) GDPR and the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, passed in 2023 by the Indian government, besides industry-specific rules and guidelines. Knowing these regulations inside out is vital for ensuring compliance and winning stakeholders’ trust.

Selecting the right data platform is extremely important for startups to achieve this. Platform providers should also follow these stringent measures to meet the demands of the ‘data guardians’ across the startup ecosystem.

“If you are a platform provider but not attentive to real-world problems faced by your end customers, if you are building features and functionality solely based on your perception rather than what truly matters to them, it becomes a potential pitfall,” said Pramod Rajagopal of Databricks.

To gain more insights into how to scale up businesses while staying compliant with data laws, watch the Inc42-Databricks roundtable titled How Data Governance Can Help Indian Startups Establish Data Integrity & Scale Up Safely.