The former Infosys CEO added that data is the resource that dominates the 21st century, similar to how oil was in the preceding century.
Bengaluru: With data protection and online privacy being a burning issue these days, former chairman of Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) Nandan Nilekani has asserted that the best solution for data to be used for public good in India was to invert the data back to the creator (common man) itself.
During his address at the sixth C.K. Prahalad Memorial Lecture, he said, “Data is empowering when it is in the hands of the people. We must invert data to ensure freedom of choice since it defends privacy, enables completion and innovation. Ultimately the data should be available to the creator of the data to use for his own empowerment. The best way to check power is to distribute it than to accumulate it.”
The former Infosys CEO added that data is the resource that dominates the 21st century, similar to how oil was in the preceding century. “Unlike oil, data is unlimited, reminded Nilekani, that we have to be aware of the strategic trend called data dominance that is happening now. He asserted that India is transforming from data poor to a data rich country in three years time from now and the right strategy needs to be sought as early as possible. Time is running out and India needs to take a strategic position on data colonization, privacy and data dominance and how data is used for public good. It is a policy issue and not a technology issue that need to be addressed soon.”
Elaborating three simple steps to data democracy, Nilekani suggested that the government must unlock public data so that people can access it, implement standard protocols and formats for release of bank statements, loans, mutual funds, stocks, investment, insurance and bring into reality a new policy to liberate private data.
“Government opening up their data to individuals and businesses, regulators making it mandatory for market participants under them to do the same and a law to decide how bodies that neither governmental nor regulated use data,” he said.
