The Karnataka government is working on a data exchange framework which will mandate the norms of how different state departments will exchange data amongst themselves, according to a senior state government official.
“Whether it is in the state or with the ministry, data exchange between departments is a real challenge. Getting data from other departments within the same state is very tough. Exchange of data even within the ministry is also equally difficult. So in that area, we are coming up with a framework outlining regulations on how the data has to be exchanged,” said Shreevyas H. M, Project Director, Centre for e-governance, Government of Karnataka, during the Global India AI summit.
He said that, though the state was having a lot of electronic databases, there were still a lot of issues related to the quality of data and data standardisation.
“We may talk so many things at the national or state level, but trust me, when you go on the ground, a lot of officers can’t even identify what is personal data, what is non-personal data. So we are working on that digital literacy part, which is more important to AI literacy,” said the official.
“We are working on a state-specific act on how the data has to be exchanged, and how departments are mandated to share the data,” he added.
Shreevyas underlined that the act will talk about important principles related to data use, including pseudo-anonymising of data and consent on user data, among a host of other things.
The official also said that the Karnataka state government was also working on revising the state data policy in line with the principles outlined under the Centre’s Digital Personal Data Protection Act (DPDPA).
Karnataka has had an ‘open data policy’ in place since 2021, which lays down principles for data collection, management, usage and sharing of data with respect to the state government and its departments. It defines the processes for handling data in government departments and outside with external stakeholders.
At the central level, the DPDP Act, which was passed by both houses of parliament in August last year, lays down broad principles for the processing of personal data in India.
DPDP defines 26 matters on which the government can make rules to enforce the provisions of the Act. However, the legislation is yet to come into force as the government has to notify the detailed rules for the act.
First Published: Jul 09 2024 | 7:44 PM IST
