Budget 2023: Data governance policy to help start-ups and academia in the works

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Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on January 1 while giving the Budget 2023 speech said that the Indian government will come up with a National Data Governance Policy, to help academia and start-ups with anonymised data.

Sitharaman said, "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."

In 2022, the IT ministry issued a fresh draft of the National Data Governance Framework Policy (NDGFP) with increased emphasis on sharing non-personal data for building a large repository of India-specific datasets and for use by researchers and start-ups.

Also Read: Explained: How will the National Data Governance Framework Policy work?

As part of the framework, a platform will be designed which will process requests and provide access to non-personal and/or anonymised datasets to Indian researchers and start-ups.

Earlier, MeitY had issued a draft policy on the same but retracted it after the ministry faced widespread criticism over planning to monetise sharing of data. The new (current) draft does not have provisions for data monetisation.

As part of the policy, the Indian government will also build the India Datasets program, which will consist of non-personal and anonymised datasets from Government entities that have collected data from Indian citizens or those in India. Private entities will be encouraged to share such data, the policy said.

On February 1, Minister of State in IT and Electronics ministry Rajeev Chandrasekhar clarified that this data will not be made available to foreign or Big Tech companies.

"National Data Governance Policy is to do with standards to manage and store government data including anonymisation standards. Under NDGFP, India Datasets Program will be created for research and governance applications,"Chandrasekhar said in a tweet.

Last year, Moneycontrol had reported that datasets under this policy will not be made available for Big Tech companies.

How will it help?

"AI Machine Learning (AI ML) is a big area and future of every single industry. The big challenge with AIML however is access to data, for you to be able to run algorithms and validate the outcomes, you need humongous amounts of data, be it in the medical field, cybersecurity or banking," Pankit Desai, CEO & Co-founder Sequretek  said.

"For startups in this space you do not have wherewithal to get access to data. Ability to have access to anonymised data will be a phenomenal capability that really should help overall AIML research, outcomes, solutions, companies, everything becomes significantly better," Desai added.

WazirX VP Rajagopal Menonational said, "A national data governance strategy has the potential to protect personal data privacy and security while also promoting data interoperability and accessibility. It will promote data-driven innovation, enhance transparency and accountability, and improve data quality and reliability."

Meanwhile, during the budget, Sitharaman also announced that the government will establish 3 centres of artificial intelligence at institutions with the help of industry.

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