Karnataka set for big data leap

Karnataka is betting huge on big data in governance, with the government looking to deploy analytics with a promise to make service delivery more efficient for citizens.

The Urban Development department is anchoring a project to make master plans for cities data-driven.

For starters, an “urban observatory” will be set up in Bengaluru to make sense of data from all 275 cities of Karnataka, Urban Development secretary (Municipalities and Urban Development Authorities) Anjum Parwez said.

Big data refers to extremely large data sets that can be analysed to reveal patterns to help decision-making.

The government’s foray into big data comes after a push for it by the Karnataka Knowledge Commission (KKC), which submitted a report making a case for big data analytics to be adopted for “better informed, evidence-based governance”.

“Big data is where the future lies,” Parwez said.

“At present, our master plans are prepared based on data that is not robust, which means we aren’t able to plan effectively for the long-term. Going forward, we want to use data from the transport and police departments such as bus usage and vehicle population that can help us work out which part of a city needs wider roads, and where new roads are needed,” he explained.

At the proposed observatory, which will be housed in a 7,000 sq ft facility in Rajajinagar, data from all parastatal agencies will be reviewed on a common platform.

“Let’s first understand data. For example, we will get each city to send data on water supply. We can analyse which city is lagging and work on it. Right now, we don’t have any centralised data platform for citizen services such as water supply or building plan approval,” Parwez said.

Under the Smart Cities Mission, the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) is creating an integrated command and control centre that will bring all the city’s agencies under one roof. Chief Secretary T M Vijay Bhaskar is said to be doubling down on this to be done soon. “This initiative, too, will have big data involved,” Parwez said.

The KKC’s action plan on using big data in governance was prepared by a task group headed by IIM Bengaluru’s Pulak Ghosh and former chief secretary S V Ranganath.

Besides piloting big data in the urban development department, the KKC has recommended projects to be taken up for crop yield estimation using Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana data.

Recently, the Cabinet discussed a proposal to partner with the Centre for Open Data Research for applying data science in governance.