The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) made it clear that the large repository of India-specific datasets that will be created under the National Data Governance Framework Policy (NDGFP) will not be shared with Big Tech.
Sources said that MeitY, during a consultation meeting on the draft NDGFP, was of the opinion that Big Tech can correlate non-personal data with personal data. Thus it will not be available for commercial operations of Big Tech.
Also Read: Explained: How will the National Data Governance Framework Policy work?
It will only be available for Indian startups. However, sources added that was no clarity on whether Indian startups meant those registered in India or those with operations in the country.
During the meeting, concerns were also raised on the definition of non-personal data. Stakeholders asked if there would be an 'absolute boundary' for defining non-personal data citing that many non-personal datasets when combined with other datasets can lead to identification. MeitY will take into consideration this recommendation, sources said.
Another concern that was raised was regarding data standardisation, which MeitY said, will be decided by the India Data Management Office. The IDMO, the draft NDGFP says, will be responsible for the operation of the data framework by developing rules, standards, and guidelines under the policy.
In the meeting, MeitY also made it clear that there would be no aspect of monetising data. Before the floating of the current draft on which the consultations are currently taking place, MeitY had issued a version of it that talked about monetising sharing of data. It was retracted after the ministry faced widespread criticism.
Concerns were also raised on the gatekeeping function in the data framework and accountability norms. It was also pointed out during the meeting regarding the data centralisation aspect of the NDGFP when the world was moving towards decentralised frameworks like Blockchain.
