Asserting that open data can be genuinely transformative, Congress MP Shashi Tharoor on Friday batted for a credible regulatory framework for it and asserted that strong anonymisation and privacy protection must be ensured so that transparency does not come at the cost of individual rights.
He said the task is not to choose between openness and control but to design systems that honour both, and asserted that India, alongside its partners, has the opportunity to help define the rules of a fairer digital order, rather than submit to subaltern status under a new extractive ‘Digital Raj’.
Speaking at a session at the India AI Impact Summit titled ‘Exploring a Regulatory Framework for Open Data’, Mr. Tharoor stressed that openness alone is not a panacea, as without safeguards, openness may devolve into tokenism.
“We all know open data can be genuinely transformative. We have seen how making government data publicly accessible can strengthen democratic accountability – whether it is citizens tracking public spending, researchers analysing welfare delivery, or civil society organisations flagging gaps in implementation,” Mr. Tharoor said.
-PTI
