This report on data governance in India is part of the “Harnessing Data for Democratic Development in South and Southeast Asia” (D4DAsia) project, which aims, inter alia, to create and mobilize new knowledge about the tensions, gaps, and evolution of the data governance ecosystem, taking into account both formal and informal policies and practices. This report is also part of a broader comparative effort that includes case studies from Pakistan, Indonesia, Nepal, South Korea, Thailand, and the Philippines.
The report provides an overview of India’s constitutional and governance framework and examines the laws and policies that shape the collection, processing, storage, access, and sharing of data. It analyses a broad range of policy areas, including open standards, open data, digital public infrastructure, data protection, geospatial governance, and right to information frameworks. The report also undertakes an in-depth examination of the Digital Personal Data Protection Act and India Stack, assessing the trade-offs between innovation, interoperability, privacy, and state access. In addition, it explores institutional and implementation challenges, tensions between openness and security, and the evolving role of digital public infrastructure in India’s data governance ecosystem.
The India Country Report can be found below.
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