Non-personal data regulator: IDMO to have both govt and private sector representation

India Data Management Office

India's upcoming non-personal data regulator, under the IndiaAI programme, is taking shape. The India Data Management Office (IDMO), will have a total personnel capacity of around 170 to 180 people, comprising both officials from various ministries and experts from the private sector, according to sources.

Each ministry will have three representatives in the IDMO, and the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY)has initiated the process of recruiting members, sources said.

The IDMO is being formed under the IndiaAI initiative (formerly known as the National Data Governance Framework). It is an artificial intelligence platform stacked with “one of the largest publicly assembled datasets in the world”.

The datasets will be non-personal and/or anonymised and the IDMO will be the nodal point for giving access to these datasets to Indian researchers and startups.

The government recently initiated the process of hiring 40 data analysts and 20 data scientists for IDMO, Moneycontrol has learnt.

The data analysts, who will report to the Chief Data Office of IDMO, will be responsible for ensuring compliance with relevant data policies and guidelines set by IDMO. The data analysts will also streamline data collection practices and systems within ministries and departments, and ensure data integrity and accurate record-keeping. In addition, data analysts in IDMO will be tasked with performing data analysis, such as cleaning data and conducting quality assurance checks.

The data scientists in IDMO will lead and mentor data analysts in streamlining data management and cleaning practices. They will also take the lead in the standardisation process of data from various ministries and departments.

Additionally, data scientists will frame data access practices for the dataset platform when it is established. They will also work closely with IDMO and other teams in ministries and departments to create standard operating procedures for data management.

How will IndiaAI work?

Last year, the Indian government published a draft of the National Data Governance Framework Policy (now known as IndiaAI) to share non-personal data and build a large repository of India-specific datasets (India Datasets programme) that can be used by researchers and startups.

The previous version of the policy, which was retracted by MeitY, had faced widespread criticism for planning to monetise the sharing of data. The current draft does not include any provisions for data monetisation.

IDMO's role in IndiaAI

According to the draft, IDMO will be responsible for designing the platform that processes requests for access to non-personal and/or anonymised datasets for use by researchers and start-ups.

The regulator will also prescribe rules and standards to identify and classify available datasets.

Apart from that, the non-personal data regulator will notify protocols for sharing datasets exclusively to "Indian/India-based requesting entities", the draft policy said.

Foreign firms and Big Tech

Recently, Minister of State in Electronics and Information Technology Rajeev Chandrasekhar said that Big Tech firms like Google will have to invest in Indian AI start-ups to get indirect access to the India Datasets programme.

“The India datasets programme will have access only for Indian start-ups. Google or other international companies have to invest in Indian artificial intelligence startups to get access in turn, or not get access at all,” the minister said at a tech policy conference organised by the Public Affairs Forum of India.