Karnataka writes to Centre, seeks legal backup to monetise data

Karnataka, which has a treasure trove of data, has already taken a policy decision to monetise it by anonymising personal details

Karnataka has asked the Centre to provide legal backing for public data to be monetised while also making a case for the creation of a sandbox (a testing environment), where the private sector can access and experiment with high-value datasets.

These are among several inputs the Basavaraj Bommai administration has submitted to the Centre on the draft National Data Governance Framework Policy (NDGFP), DH has learnt.

Karnataka, which has a treasure trove of data on farmers, students, income, caste and so on, has already taken a policy decision to monetise citizen data by anonymising personal details, even as rights activists have argued that complete anonymisation is not possible.

The NDGFP should, the state government has now said, provide legality and a formula for data monetisation.

The government has also suggested a sandbox in which companies or research organisations and startups will be given separate access to datasets that they can use to develop or validate new ideas.

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According to sources, Karnataka is working on its own sandbox where the private sector can play with data. “We are planning a sandbox that won’t require algorithms. It’ll be drag-and-drop that will throw up visualisations and analytics based on high-value datasets,” a government source said.

In another input, the state government has asked the India Data Management Office (IDMO), which will oversee the NDGFP, to provide incentives to the top 10 companies in the sectors of healthcare, education and environment to start using datasets.

Besides asking the IDMO to conduct semi-annual (twice a year) consultations with representation from state governments and the industry, Karnataka wants the Centre to include citizens in the policy-making process as well.

It should consider giving ratings to datasets that are complete and correct, the state has said.

Kannada push

Karnataka is also seeking standardisation of data. The government has said the NDGFP should identify common datasets that can be shared among the states in the areas of public safety, health and water so that a template will become a necessity.

This will have a bearing on Karnataka’s open data portal (karnataka.data.gov.in) that has 23,602 resources forming 713 catalogues across 109 departments.

The Bommai government also wants the Centre to consider having primary data in the language of the state (Kannada in case of Karnataka) and a copy of that in English.