G20 Sherpa of India Amitabh Kant speaks during the first meeting of the Development Working Group (DWG) under India’s G20 Presidency, in Mumbai, on December 13, 2022
| Photo Credit: PTI
India’s G-20 Sherpa Amitabh Kant on Tuesday said that the data is a key aspect to help any country meet its developmental goals and India has benefitted from the same.
Addressing the G-20 Development Working Group Meeting in Mumbai, he pitched for the dissemination of data by the government in a granular form and said that sharing aggregated information is not good.
“The government data are provided as aggregates, which is not good. We should break down the aggregation,” the former civil servant of Kerala cadre said.
He said that many a time, the quality of the data is also very poor and one needs to ensure that the data is “de-cluttered”, presented in a simplistic way and it is not difficult to navigate.
“In India, we’ve tried to bring good data governance and brought several initiatives like Data Governance Quality Index. Less developed and developing countries will never be able to technologically lead, and grow without the use of data and good governance,” the former CEO of NITI Aayog, a public policy think tank of the Government of India said.
Further, Mr. Kant slammed government officers for being possessive about data and often resists sharing them, and said “we need to overcome this challenge so as to help academics and researchers analyse the data and use it for best outcomes.”
“There is also a challenge with data as a huge quantum of it exists all around, the same is siloed. We need to break down these compartments,” he said.
In a video message Union Minister of State for Information and Technology Rajeev Chandrasekhar said the Government of India would soon start collecting uniform and harmonised anonymised data sets under the National Data Governance Framework Policy.
He said that India has a vibrant start-up ecosystem and a robust Artificial Intelligence ecosystem. “So, we expect companies to use this large database to train their Artificial Intelligence (AI) models increasingly. We aim to spur innovation and create more effective policy and pragmatic solutions,” he said.
He stressed on the importance of digital data and data-driven interventions for adaptive growth and said there is a need to put essential safeguards against the misuse of data and put in place a framework for this purpose.
“We must view the Digital Economy through a combined prism of trust and protection. We must work together to build a new international framework for technology, digital internet, and indeed data that mainstream the public good and Sustainable Development,” Mr. Chandrasekhar said.
He further added that the use of datasets through innovative technology will have a far-reaching impact and will benefit development work at the grassroots level and expand digitisation.
Infosys co-founder and chairman Nandan Nilekani suggested harvesting data for developmental goals. “We have an opportunity to create new data for development paradigm right now,” he said.
Several sessions were also held during the meeting, and these included the Role of Government and International organisations in Data for Development; Infusing new LiFE into Green Development; Models for the future: leveraging IoT, big data and AI for the SDGs and rejuvenating legacy systems: From data to public value intelligence
Meanwhile, in view of the G-20 meetings, Mumbai traffic police have announced restrictions and diversions between Bandra Kurla Complex, Kherwadi, Worli Sea Link, Haji Ali, Marine Drive, Regal Junction and Gateway of India.