Better data governance can improve welfare delivery

Indian states, with their diverse and intensive interactions with citizens and businesses, are responsible for 60% of public expenditure.

- Sridhar Ganapathy

State governments in India together spend more than the Union government on subjects ranging from medical insurance and social protection for unorganised workers to solar panel subsidies and MSME incentives. The frequency of announcements cof new subsidies and overhauling existing welfare schemes has seen an uptick, and states are acting to maximise use of collected data for better service delivery and policymaking.

Since 2010, Right To Public Services legislation has been enacted by 22 states and Union territories (UTS), primarily increasing responsiveness of the large range of citizenand business-facing functions that need to be accomplished in a timely manner. This foundational framework that made public service delivery by states visible and accountable needs a 2lst-century upgrade.

Recent state-level initiatives such as Kutumba in Karnataka and Parivar Pehchan in Haryana hope to create family and beneficiary-oriented systems for one-stop platforms for public service delivery and disbursement of entitlements. These are complex endeavours, requiring linking and sharing data across different schemes and departments, creating registries to better identify and serve potential beneficiaries, and continued vigilance on how the systems interact with each other. It makes significant demands on state capacity, and with the digital data protection regime now active in India, states need to articulate their data governance strategy through comprehensive data policies for responsible use of data that not only maximise use but also strengthen protections for citizen data.