Introduction

The new wave of a technological revolution will not be from pure data or access to consumer behaviour, but the application of data and their assimilation with solving social problems, enabling better governance and powering elected governments to serve their citizens better.

Key pointers:

• Data-driven governance is ushering in a new revolution.
• A real paradign shift has begun – due to integration of Artificial Intelligence and open data.
• Consumer-behaivour is being redefined as most of the companies have access to customer’s choice and information-sharing and they embrace data-driven innovation.

Concerns around privacy and consent

This “datafication” of businesses has also brought to the fore the criticality of developing data management, storage and privacy laws.

For instance, European Union introduced General Data Protection Regulation. India has adopted a collaborative model to develop privacy laws, which includes deliberations with creators of data (the consumer) and users (corporates).

Open government data

Open government data is a silent but powerful movement unfolding globally.

• Over 100 governments have already signed a charter to proactively share data collected by various government departments, for public consumption.
• Fostering collaboration, enabling creative innovations and collective problem-solving are giving accountability and transparency a shot in the arm.
• Open government data means publishing information collected by the government in its entirety, such as government budgets, spending records, health-care measures, climate records, and farming and agricultural produce statistics.
• If the advent of data-driven business models was a watershed moment, this is the real pot of gold. Unfortunately, the potential of this national asset is being grossly underutilised.

Significance of open government data

• Such data collected by governments are for citizen welfare; hence they have an implicit right to benefit from the information.
• Data sets such as government budget usage, welfare schemes and subsidies increase transparency and thereby build trust.
• It paves the way to develop technology-led innovations which can unlock massive economic value, thereby benefitting even the poorest of poor, the under-represented and the marginalised.
• Availability of data on yearly produce of crops, soil data health cards and meteorological data sets can help companies develop customised crop insurance solutions with specific risk-based pricing.
• Data points around progress in literacy rates, demographic data and density of educators can help develop customised solutions for villages.
• Similarly, information on availability of facilities in public hospitals, current occupancy rates, hospital and demographic data can pave the way for curated health-care applications.
• It can help India achieve its stated objectives to double farmers’ incomes by 2022 and provide universal health coverage and micro loans to micro, small and medium enterprises among others.
• Open data can add an additional 1.5% to the country’s GDP. (about $22 billion)

India’s current position

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology has made some laudable efforts, including a policy around open data.

• India currently houses more than 1.6 lakh data resources and has published over 4,015 application programme interfaces (APIs) from across 100-plus departments. As a result, India’s global ranking by the Global Open Data Barometer has jumped.
• Open Data project shows good intent but sporadic execution. Even though India publishes data points, very little of it is getting utilised by data consumers, scientists and corporates. Naturally, the socio-economic impact is limited.

The way forward: Five-point framework

5C framework can help to address the current underlying execution gaps of the Open Data project

1. The first step is to ensure completeness of data stacks opened for use either through machine-readable formats or direct APIs. Completeness would imply a data set. For example, soil data cards will have data on all relevant aspects as well as current emerging technologies such as Blockchain and the Internet of Things to provide the opportunity to automate data collection.
2. Comprehensiveness of a data stack or various data sets is essential. For example, a comprehensive agri-data set would have digitised data sets on soil data, rainfall, crop production as well as market rates. Currently, data sets shared in India are somewhat disjointed and not comprehensive.
3. Clustering of relevant data sets and APIs would be the next step. This would mean combining data sets which can lead to the creation of applications such as farm insurance from weather, soil and crop cycle/sale data. Therefore, technology developers have a road map of “innovations in focus” for national development.
4. The fourth step is building anchor cases or use-cases to encourage data usage. A case in point is Aadhaar/identity data which has seen exponential growth (post identification in e-KYC). Taking the Aadhaar case further, its API has led to the development of market applications, an Aadhaar-enabled payment system, and direct benefit transfers among others which are clearly pushing the “financial inclusion” drive.
5. The final step would be setting up a comprehensive governance framework which includes an open data council with cross-sector representation to monitor, regulate and build usage after proportionate oversight.

The time is now ripe for the government to create a data-driven governance architecture by building digital trust in the economy and its intent.