India is fortunate to have large amount of population scale systems generating data: Nandan Nilekani

Infosys co-founder Nandan Nilekani

India is well-positioned to track the country’s development closely through data from its population scale systems, said Infosys co-founder Nandan Nilekani, speaking on ‘Data for Development’ at the 1st Development Working Group Meeting at the G20 Summit in Mumbai.

“In India, we have been particularly fortunate to have large amount of population scale systems that are generating a wealth of data. For example, the GST system, fully digitised using the GSTM, generates a vast amount of data which tells us on a weekly basis the changes happening in the economy,” Nilekani said addressing the foreign delegates.

He added, “The National Payments Corporation of India which looks at payments has very strong indicators through data for judging consumption in the economy, the growth in migration and rise in the remittances going home from urban India to rural India. In education, the government’s Diksha platform will enable us to understand the learning challenges in India, the common misconceptions and how it can be improved.”

He also highlighted the healthtech stack developed by the Indian government which will enable the country to monitor health-related outputs and situations.

Moreover, Nilekani believes that this data is a by-product of these large interoperable population scale systems which “gives us a way to analyse the future of India through its data”.

More importantly, personal data can be further utilised at an individual or a business level for one’s own betterment. “In the coming years, starting with financial services, Individuals can use their own data to get better facilities such as insurance, financial services and even jobs,” he said.