The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) recently issued a policy proposal named “Draft India Data Accessibility & Use Policy, 2022.” This draft’s policy aims are mostly commercial in nature. It aspires to drastically improve India’s capacity to leverage public-sector data.

Major proposals

• The policy applies to any data and information generated, processed, collected, or maintained by the central government and authorised agencies. State governments may also enact the measures.
• Unless it comes under a negative list of data sets, all government data will be available and shareable. Data classified as a negative list of datasets that will not be shared, with restricted access and shared only with trusted individuals, as determined by the appropriate ministry or department, in a controlled environment.
• In accordance with existing laws, data should remain the property of the agency/department/ministry/entity that generated/collected it. Access to data under this policy shall not be in contravention of any current legislation or rules of the government of India. This policy’s legal structure must be consistent with numerous legislation and laws governing data.
• The paper recommends the creation of an India Data Office (IDO) to streamline and unify data access and sharing across government and other stakeholders. It will, among other things, create frameworks for high-value data sets, finalise data standards and metadata standards, and assess policy implementation. Every ministry or department should establish Data Management Units led by Chief Data Officers that would collaborate closely with the IDO to guarantee the policy’s implementation.
• Each minister or department will get a data-sharing toolkit to assist in assessing and managing the risks associated with data sharing and dissemination. The framework will aid data officers in assessing if a data set is suitable for release, limited sharing, or must be placed on the negative list, as well as the appropriate release route and level of anonymity necessary.

Advantages

• The guideline is accompanied by a background note that describes existing barriers in data exchange and utilisation. It includes the lack of a body to oversee and enforce policy on data sharing activities, the lack of technological tools and standards for data sharing, the identification of high-value datasets, and licencing and valuation frameworks.
• The National Economic Survey for 2019 emphasised the business benefits of utilising government data. Access to certain datasets for commercial purpose may be provided to the private sector.
• Over the next decade, the creation of citizen data is expected to grow dramatically, becoming a cornerstone of India’s USD 5 trillion digital economy.
• It outlines a path ahead for unlocking the high value of data across the economy, including a consistent and comprehensive governance policy, the interoperability of government data, and the instillation of data skills and culture.

Concerns

• Despite the fact that the policy considers anonymisation to be a desirable aim, there is a lack of legal responsibility and independent regulatory supervision.
• There is also a failure to take scientific analysis into account, as well as the availability of automated methods for re-identification of anonymous data.
• The Policy’s new concepts have been defined in a vague and confusing way, leaving them susceptible to misunderstanding. The Policy establishes a separate category of ‘High-Value Datasets,’ which it considers critical for governance and innovation, and to which access will be hastened. However, neither the Background Note nor the Policy describe the category succinctly.
• The economic worth of data grows as the amount of personal data increases. The lack of an anchoring statute also prevents the policy from meeting the legality standard for state involvement into privacy established by the Supreme Court of India in its historic right to privacy ruling (K.S. Puttaswamy v. Union of India 2017).
• India lacks a data protection law (Data Protection Bill) that can offer responsibility and remedies for abuses of privacy, such as forceful and excessive data collecting or data breaches. Inter-departmental data sharing raises privacy issues since an open government data portal including data from all departments might result in the building of 360-degree profiles and enable state-sponsored mass monitoring.
• Another concern is that the strategy bypasses parliament by proposing large-scale data sharing and enrichment using public monies. Furthermore, the establishment of offices, the establishment of norms that may apply not only to the Central government, but also to State governments and the programmes managed by them, necessitate legislative debate.
• While the policy states that state governments would be “free to adopt sections of the programme,” it does not clarify how such flexibility will be attained.There is also no mention of whether the Central Government would sell data obtained from the states and whether the revenues will be shared with the states.
• By using open data terminology, the government deviates from its basic goal of offering transparency to its citizens. There is just one reference of openness, and there is little to no discussion of how such data sharing can assist assure accountability and remedy claims.

https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/draft-data-accessibility-policy-privacy-suveillance-7801714/

How to structure

1. Give an intro about Draft India Data Accessibility & Use Policy 2022
2. Give the major features
3. Mention the concerns related to the policy
4. Suggest way forward
5. Conclude