Niti Aayog is planning to create a National Data Platform. Termed National Data and Analytics Platform (NDAP), the provision will provide access to data that is assured, consistent, coherent and credible. What is more, the platform will also support analysis of the data presented.

Niti Aayog has just released a vision document on this new initiative by the government of India and it may become a reality by the year 2021. The vision document calls data the new oil, meaning it could be a critical input for all facets of the economy and will assist in the public and private sector companies arriving at important business decisions.

The vision document states that the NDAP platform will be “the platform will be powered by a user-friendly search engine, backed by seamless navigation, with a worldclass user interface. Data will be provided in a machine-readable format with customisable analytics.”

The input data for the NDAP will be sourced from the different central ministries and state governments and departments. More importantly, there will be a mechanism to ensure updation of the data so that the latest datasets are made available to those seeking information.

Niti Aayog will be the nodal agency for providing direction to this new initiative and will oversee its progress and will also intervene where there are inter-ministerial issues involved.

Niti Aayog is also constituting a Technical Advisory Group for NDAP, which will largely include experts in the data collection, storage, retrieval and analytics fields along with sector specialists.

As indicated, the first version of the National Data and Analytics Platform will be released in 2021.