Govt clears national data sharing policy

In a move that will help in effective framing of national policies and planning, government today gave nod to a policy on sharing data and information among various departments.

The National Data Sharing and Accessibility Policy, cleared by the Union Cabinet, will make it mandatory for every department to share data.

The Tourism Ministry, for example, will now share its foreign and domestic tourist arrival data with any other ministry, if required.

"We already share our foreign tourist arrival data with the Home Ministry and External Affairs Ministry. Now this data will be made available for other ministries also," a Ministry official said.

"The data and information will be shared in both human readable and machine readable forms through a network all over the country in a proactive and periodically updatable manner," a government statement said.

The sharing will be in consonance with the policies, acts and rules of the Government, therefore, permitting a wider accessibility and use of public data and information, the statement added.

The policy will apply to all data and information created, generated, collected and achieved using public funds provided by the Union Government directly or through authorised agencies by various ministries, departments, organisations, agencies and autonomous bodies, the statement said.