Will the Minister of Electronics & Information Technology be pleased to state:-
(a) whether the Government is considering allowing data collected and generated by various Government Ministries and departments to be used by private players for building apps and services for commercial purposes and if so, the details thereof;
(b) whether the Government is considering to formulate a policy for the same; and
(c) If so, the details thereof and if not, the reasons therefor?
(a): Yes, Sir. The Government has already decided to allow data collected and generated by Government Ministries and departments to be used by individual users, communities including various private players for building apps and services, which enable varied and non-exclusive usages for both commercial and non-commercial purposes. Details are given below:
The Union Government through Ministry of Science and Technology has formulated the National Data Sharing and Accessibility Policy (NDSAP), while Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology (MeitY) is the nodal Ministry to implement the policy.
The NDSAP had identified MeitY as the nodal Ministry for the implementation of the policy through NIC, while Department of Science and Technology continues to be the nodal department on policy matters. The policy was notified by the Department of Science and Technology (Govt. of India Gazette dated 17th March 2012). The policy can be accessed online at https://data.gov.in/sites/default/files/NDSAP.pdf
The objective of the policy is to provide proactive access to Government owned shareable data along with its usage information in open/machine readable format, through a wide area of network across the country, in a periodically updated manner, within the framework of various related policies, rules, and acts of the Government.
Open Govt. Data: Potential Impacts: Transparency, Accountability, Citizen Engagement, Collaboration, Data Driven Decision Making, Innovation, Good Governance.
NDSAP is applicable to-
- All sharable non-sensitive data -- Government Ministries, Departments, & Associated Offices
In pursuance of the NDSAP- Policy notified by Government of India in March 2012, MeitY through NIC has developed the Open Government Data (OGD) Platform India - https://data.gov.in/ to provide open access by proactive release of the data available with various Ministries/ Departments/ organizations of Government of India. Developed using Open Source Stack, the project is one of the initiatives under Pillar-6 (Information for All) of the Digital India initiative.
At present, all the Central Government Ministry/Departments have accepted the policy. As on 8th March, 2017, OGD India has 69,360 resources, 4,104 catalogs contributed by 104 Ministry/Departments, 1,026 Visualizations created, 444-Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) created, 111 Chief Data Officers. OGD India has 10.07 million times viewed and 4.09 million datasets have been downloaded.
It is envisaged that Ministries/Departments would release datasets on proactive/auto consumption basis through Application Programming Interfaces (APIs)/Web Services i.e. in line with the principles of Open by Default from all e-Government Service Applications particularly from Digital India initiative of the Government.
Open Govt. Data: Potential Impacts: Transparency, Accountability, Citizen Engagement, Collaboration, Data Driven Decision Making, Innovation, Good Governance.
(b) and (c): Yes, Sir. The Government has already formulated a license called Open Government Data License – India to support and compliment National Data Sharing and Accessibility Policy (NDSAP) to provide legal backing to access Government owned shareable data.
In pursuance of the NDSAP and access of the Government data/metadata through Open Government Data (OGD) Platform, the Open Government Data License of India has been recently approved by the Ministry (MeitY) to ensure that the data sets released are not misused or misinterpreted (for example, by insisting on proper attribution), and that all users have the same and permanent right to use the data. The said License has been notified in the Gazette of India on 13th February, 2017.
https://data.gov.in/sites/default/files/Gazette_Notification_OGDL.pdf
As per the Terms & Conditions of use of data under this license, “The user must acknowledge the provider, source, and license of data by explicitly publishing the attribution statement”. Accordingly, the purpose of downloading the data by the users against various categories, such as commercial, non-commercial, educational, R&D, social etc. can be captured. It would make the OGD platform more accountable.
Data also is one of the most valuable resources of modern governance, sharing of which enables various and non-exclusive usages for both commercial and non-commercial purposes. Licenses, however, are crucial to ensure that such data is not misused or misinterpreted (for example, by insisting on proper attribution), and that all users have the same and permanent right to use the data. As per the norms of the NDSAP Policy & OGD License, the data users have to acknowledge the Data Provider by explicitly publishing the attribution statement.
As on date many APPs have been developed by various communities using the data/metadata published through OGD platform for both commercial and non-commercial purposes.
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