Scope of Big data in Governance

Big Data can enhance the government’s ability to serve its citizens and address major national challenges involving the economy, healthcare, job creation, natural disasters, and terrorism. While businesses have adopted Big Data and analytics in various forms very effectively to personalize offerings, and to improve business efficiency, governments have been laggards Several countries, such as the UK, US and European Union (EU) member countries, have started big data government programmes. A NASSCOM report estimates that India's analytics market could increase from $1 billion to $2.3 billion by the end of 2017-18. However, the benefits of this revolution are yet to be fully harnessed by the public sector in India.

What is Big Data-
Big Data is amounts of data (electronic or otherwise) collected from the different devices that we use on a day-to-day basis or used by government machineries which enables us to do predictive analysis and informed decision making across individual, organizational, societal, national and international levels.
Role of Big data in Governance-

• Decision-Making - Big Data is provides governments with unprecedented opportunities to create new insights and solutions; becoming more responsive to new opportunities and better able to act quickly - and in some cases preemptively – to deal with emerging threats.Example - MyGov.in is a crowd sourcing platform for citizen opinion and input that leverages Big Data technologies to inform policy decisions.
• Efficiency and Productivity - By providing the information and analysis needed for organisations to better manage and coordinate their operations; Big Data can help to reduce waste and checking leakages, leading to the better utilization of scarce resources and a more productive workforce.Example- Aadhaar and Digital India seek to improve the delivery of government services through means such as reducing fraud, making delivery more efficient, etc.

Application in the field of governance-

• Data driven governance aims to improve the last-mile linkage of individuals to schemes and empower communities and service providers through data collection, analysis, and improvisation.
• Open government data can create political accountability, generate economic value, and improve the quality of federal initiatives. Many experts believe that government reforms must aim to work with data to assess the impact of services, make informed decisions, improve monitoring programmes, and improve systemic efficiencies.
• Scope in various areas, such as solving traffic problems in cities; targeting healthcare delivery; efficient supply chain management; preventive steps for environmental protection; providing a personalized educational experience for students; enabling security to individuals and society at large; and informed policymaking.
• Availability and accessibility of data can help increase the efficacy in human intuition (decision-making) in every field of science, medicine and technology.

Applicability of Big Data in present Government Schemes-

Smart Cities-

•  Data and analytics will play a predominant role in such transformation by way of cloud , mobile technology and other social technologies and such technologies can contribute to a quantified society.
• Smart government by enabling e-governance, improved models for future development, better decision-making, efficient service delivery, and making the government more transparent, participatory and accountable.
• Smart people by creating a more informed citizenry and fostering creativity, inclusivity, empowerment and participation.

Digital India-

• The Nine pillars of Digital India programm involve the use of technology in areas like Broadband connectivity, electronic delivery of services by way of e-Kranti initiative, encouraging Open data platform, etc. Other programmes include Digital Locker, eSign, and mygov.in

Aadhaar-

• Due to the fact that the UID seeks to be a universal identifier for transactions, the use of the Aadhaar number can generate 'Big Data'. The Jandhan-Aadhaar-moblie (JAM trinity) is a good example of applying Big Data technology to address problems associated with identity systems.

Concerns in employing Big data in governance-

• This collected data is processed and disseminated in various forms. During this process, it should be ensured that the information is not distorted; not disclosed; not appropriated; not stolen; and not intruded upon within specified rules and guidelines. Present apprehensions regarding Aadhaar data need to be sorted to increase public faith for increasing participation of the citizens.
• Any breach of confidentiality regarding data that is collected and processed by the government could have serious ramifications. Thus data protection and privacy regulations and guidelines should be strengthen. Like European Union's General Data Protection Regulation.
• The involvement of foreign firms in the development and implementation of the scheme raises questions of national security. Most of the data centers/banks are off-shore and dominated by US which is major security and sovereignty issue.

Challenges poses by big data-

• Complexity of government -Collection of data is also a paramount task for government as data is received from multiple online and offline channels. Sharing and collection of data between departments and across ministries and state government is a challenge, given the jurisdictional boundaries that exist.
• Diverse set of decision making in govt. - government goals- sustainable development, security of basic rights and promotion of general welfare, long-term promoting public interest.
• In a vast country like India, data collection is a tall order. Currently, information is being collected by different government departments right from the panchayat to the state level. Although, most of it remains restricted within departments. There are issues in timely collection of information while in some areas the quality of data collected is questionable, thereby delaying analysis

Future prospective and government initiatives-

• Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) launched Centre for Data Management and Analytics (CDMA) to synthesise and integrate relevant data for the auditing process. It aims to exploit the data-rich environment in the union and state governments to build capacity in the Indian audit and accounts department.
• Actively engaging policy makers and researchers with the processed data is crucial to bring in cross-sectoral transformation .The Government of India is working towards an Open Data Policy, under the Department of Information and Technology (DIT) to encourage sharing information between departments and across ministries.
• Telangana as also come-up with new 'open data' policy. The move is aimed not only at transparency, but to also enable start-ups in the state to address public issues by finding solutions using the information online.

Conclusion-
Big Data can have a big impact in govenance only if used on a massive scale—with safeguards—by governments for the delivery of public goods and services. Amid India's bid for rapid economic development and improved administrative efficiency, a commitment to use information technology, open source data, and proper governance will play an important role in determining the improvement in human development indices. Requisite investments in technology, capacity building, a centralised mandate, and structures to facilitate data sharing can help to bring plans and participation closer to reality.

By: Deepak Thakur