GovernanceNow.com | For openness in data use

The data lying in government files has great social and commercial value. Under the ‘open data initiative’, started by the government last year, more and more departments releasing datasets on the umbrella website, data.gov.in. From this site, a citizen can access any government data – be it health indicators or farm statistics. Also, small- and medium-sized companies and application developers’ community can use the publicly available data to create apps that smart-phone users can find handy. For the creation of an ‘app economy’, the developers’ community, however, is demanding that the government should supplement the open data initiative by a licensing policy, which can lay down clear rules for commercial and non-commercial usage of datasets. Under the national data sharing and accessibility policy (NDSAP) 2012, all departments have to release data on the data.gov.in portal. The data, which could be related to mandi rates of commodities, weather and rainfall, traffic, crime, public transport, roads, among others, is being pushed to the portal. The aim, as the NDSAP’s preamble recognises, is to enable a rational debate, better decision-making and use in meeting civil society needs. This could be effectively done through apps, which analyse and simplify the data and make it consumable for the end user.  While it is good that the data and application programming interface is made available by data.gov.in, the commercials and licensing framework is still being worked out by the government agencies. This would help in further usage and proliferation of this valuable data.  Jairam Srinivasan, founder of Frontal Rain, a Bangalore-based firm which provides agribusiness apps to help the businesses in procurement and supply chain management of agri-commodities, was the first to point out to the government the lack of a licensing policy. Using the mandi data made available by the ministry of agriculture, under the data.gov.in portal, Srinivasan is offering his clients a price discovery mechanism by creating an app which could search, visualise and analyse mandi rates for commodities across the country.  The absence of accurate market data is one of the biggest challenges for companies working in agribusiness. 'As most of the money is spent by agribusiness in purchasing commodities, the absence of accurate market data was always seen as the biggest challenge.

While big companies had their own staff stationed at different government markets (mandis) to collect data, it was till now difficult for farmers, farmer cooperatives, small- and medium-sized traders and agents to do the same,' says Srinivasan ..."