The government of India has proposed to set up an India Data Management Office (IDMO) under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) that will frame, manage and periodically review and revise the National Data Governance Framework Policy (NDGFP).
The IDMO will be responsible for developing rules, standards, and guidelines under this Policy that will be published periodically. The IDMO will coordinate closely with line Ministries, State Governments, and other schematic programmes to standardise data management by building up capacity and capabilities in each Ministry.
Further, it will accelerate the inclusion of non-personal datasets housed with ministries and private companies into the India datasets programme.
The NDGFP aims to transform and modernise the government’s data collection and management processes and systems through standardised guidelines, rules and standards for the collection, processing, storage, access, and use of Government data – with the objective of improving governance through a whole-of-government approach towards data-led governance.
This Policy shall be applicable to all government departments and entities and the rules and standards prescribed will cover all data collected and being managed by any government entity.
This policy shall be applicable to all non-personal datasets and data and platforms, rules, and standards governing its access and use by researchers and startups. State governments shall be encouraged to adopt the provisions of the policy and rules, standards, and protocols as applicable, to the authorities mentioned in the draft.
Objectives of NDGFP
The policy aims at accelerating digital governance and having standardised data management and security standards across the whole Government. To accelerate the creation of common standard based public digital platforms while ensuring privacy, safety, and trust, have standard APIs and other tech standards for the entire government data management and access.
To promote transparency, accountability, and ownership in non-personal data and datasets access. For purposes of safety and trust, any non-personal data sharing by any entity can be only via platforms designated and authorised by IDMO.
It also aims at building a platform that will allow dataset requests to be received and processed along with building digital government goals and capacity, knowledge and competency in Government departments and entities and setting quality standards and promoting the expansion of India datasets programme and overall non-personal datasets Ecosystem and ensure greater citizen awareness, participation, and engagement.