Budget 2023 | What is the National Data Governance Policy

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced the formation of a National Data Governance Policy (NGDP) in order to provide academia and start-ups with anonymised data. The announcement followed the release of the draft National Data Governance Frame Policy (NDGFP) by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) last year.

"To unleash innovation and research by start-ups and academia, a data governance policy will be brought out. This will enable access to anonymised data,” FM Sitharaman said.

Under the draft rules released last year, the NDGP allows the government to sell anonymised public data sets for researchers, start-ups and companies. The data shared in this way would not contain personal information. However, facing backlash and criticism the framework was withdrawn and a new draft framework was released that did not have any provisions for monetising private data. The policy aimed to increase the efficacy of data-driven governance as well as promote an innovative ecosystem of data science, analytics and AI to reach its full potential.

The policy framework envisioned the creation of the India Datasets program. The India Datasets program would gather all the data collected by the Indian government as well as private enterprises that could then be shared in an anonymised manner with public and private entities. The data would be used to improve services and build better data models.

The framework also proposed the creation of the India Data Management Office (IDMO), under the Digital India Corporation. The IDMO would be responsible for framing, managing and periodically reviewing and revising the NGDP. The nomination of departments and state governments in the IDC will be by rotation, with a tenure of two years for one department. An India Data Office (IDO) would oversee implementation and enforcement. A regulatory authority, called the Indian Data Council (IDC), will also be created. The IDC will be responsible for defining high-value datasets, finalising data standards and metadata standards.