Lok Sabha Question No. 2451 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2016-11-30
Subject: NDSAP
Ministry: ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
Asked by: HARI BABU KAMBHAMPATI

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 2451

TO BE ANSWERED ON: 30.11.2016

## NDSAP

## 2451 DR. KAMBHAMPATI HARIBABU:

Will the Minister of Electronics & Information Technology be pleased to state: -

- (a) whether the Ministry has formulated the National Data Sharing and Accessibility Policy (NDSAP);
- (b) if  so,  the  details  thereof  including  the  number  of  data  sets  released  on  the  Open Government Data (OGD) Platform;
- (c) whether  State  Governments  have  requested  for  assistance  and  support  to  setup  State government Data portals;
- (d) if so, the details thereof, state-wise and the action taken by the Government thereon; and
- (e) the  steps  being  taken  by  the  Ministry  to  encourage  pro-active  sharing  of  datasets  by various ministries and State Governments?

## ANSWER

## MINISTER OF STATE FOR MINISTRY OF ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY   (SHRI P.P.CHAUDHARY)

(a) and (b): Yes, Sir. 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 Department of Science of Technology under Ministry of Science  and Technology has formulated the NDSAP through close collaboration with other line Ministries and MeitY by creating 'data.gov.in' through National Informatics  Centre  (NIC).  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  17 th March  2012).  In  pursuance  of  the  NDSAP-  Policy  notified  by Government of India in March 2012, MeitY through NIC has set up 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.

OGD  Platform  is  available  as  Software  as  a  Service  (SaaS)  model.  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.

Further, 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.

As  on  November  24,  2016  more  than  44,  368  datasets  have  been  contributed  on  OGD Platform  by  111  (103  Central,  8  State)  nominated  Chief  Data  Officers  (CDOs)  from  102 Ministry/ Departments.

(c): Yes, Sir. The State Governments have requested for assistance and support to setup State government Data portals.

- (d): Few States are contributing data directly on data.gov.in. Sikkim is the first State with its own Data Portal (https://sikkim.data.gov.in/ ), which was launched on 10 th June, 2016. The Open Government Data Portal of the Surat Municipal Corporation (https://surat.data.gov.in/) was launched on 23 rd October, 2016. Some States have published datasets on OGD Platform.
- (e):   Following activities has been conducted to encourage Ministries and States to release more data on OGD Platform:
-  Regular persuasions are being made with the user departments & organizations at Central and State level for encouraging them for pro-active release of datasets.
-  Workshops/Training/Awareness Sessions have been conducted for Chief Data Officers, Data Contributors of various Ministry/Departments.
-  State level workshops have been conducted.
-  Events  /  Apps  Challenges  /  Hackathons  have  been  organized  for  Citizen  /  Community engagement.
-  Introduced 'Open Data Champion' category in the Web Ratna Awards of NIC since 2014 to motivate departments to publish open datasets.

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