What is in news : Karnataka will allow monetisation of a treasure trove of citizen data available at its disposal by anonymising personal details under its new open data policy.

Details:

• What this means : any organisation, institution (educational or research), corporate body, the private agency registered in India and operational for 24 months can ink an agreement with the government, including a non-disclosure pact, buy data to make business decisions
• With its own policy, Karnataka joins a select club of states — Telangana, Odisha, Sikkim and Punjab — in having an open data regime.
• In Karnataka, we know where schools and hospitals are located, We also know the literacy rates, disease and patient details. So, data on an area with a high population but low literacy where there aren’t good schools may be purchased to identify where a school or hospital can be opened
• The state government is sitting on a vast collection of citizen data. The new policy classifies data based on its intended usage: shareable data, sensitive data (that can be disclosed only on a need-to-know basis) and restricted data (that can cause a threat to life or loss of public assets, accessible only through a prescribed process of registration and authorisation)