Data Exchanges Can Boost Digital Public Infrastructure

Syllabus: GS2/Governance; GS3/Infrastructure

Context

• As India accelerates its digital transformation journey and digital public infrastructure emerges as a cornerstone of inclusive growth, innovation, and governance, there is a need to unlock the full potential of data exchanges and make them integral to the ecosystem.

What Are Data Exchanges?

• They are secure, policy-driven, and consent-based platforms that enable structured, trusted, and interoperable sharing of data across sectors — government, private, civil society and research. 

• They promote standardization, discoverability, and accountability, ensuring that data flows where it’s needed most, without compromising privacy.

Key Benefits of Data Exchanges

• Improved Efficiency and Service Delivery:
  • Healthcare: Patient records can be securely shared across hospitals, labs, and insurers, reducing duplication and enabling faster diagnosis and treatment.
  • Government Services: Citizens can access services like subsidies, pensions, or licenses without repeatedly submitting the same documents.
• Boost to Innovation and Startups:
  • Access to Rich Datasets: Startups and researchers can use anonymized public data to build AI models, develop apps, and test new solutions.
  • Accelerated R&D: Data sharing across institutions speeds up scientific research and product development.
• Economic Growth and New Markets: Data exchanges can catalyze new markets. The India Data Accessibility and Use Policy envisions monetizing non-sensitive government data, creating opportunities for data-driven businesses.
  • The World Bank estimates that data ecosystems contribute 1–2% of GDP in developed nations. 
  • For India, its DPI stack could add $200–250 billion to GDP by 2030, with data exchanges as critical enablers.
• Better Governance and Policy Making:
  • Real-Time Insights: Governments can use integrated data to track trends, allocate resources, and respond to emergencies more effectively.
  • Evidence-Based Policies: Data-driven insights lead to smarter, more targeted interventions in areas like education, employment, and urban planning.
• Enhanced Transparency and Accountability:
  • Audit Trails: Data exchanges can log who accessed what data and when, ensuring accountability and reducing corruption.
  • Open Data Access: Citizens and watchdogs can scrutinize public data, promoting transparency in governance.
• Empowered Citizens:
  • Consent-Based Sharing: Individuals can control who accesses their data and for what purpose—thanks to frameworks like the Account Aggregator.
  • Simplified Access: Services like DigiLocker allow users to retrieve verified documents instantly, reducing paperwork and friction.
• Cross-Sector Collaboration:
  • Interoperability: Banks, telecoms, healthcare providers, and government agencies can collaborate more effectively when data flows seamlessly.
  • Global Partnerships: Standardized data exchanges make it easier to collaborate across borders, especially in areas like climate action and public health.

Challenges in Implementing Data Exchanges

• Governance Challenge: The biggest bottleneck isn’t technology — it’s governance. ADeX and TGDeX highlight that success depends on:
  • Clear data classification and access policies;
  • Consent-based sharing frameworks;
  • Stakeholder trust and participation;
  • Monitoring and audit mechanisms
• Privacy and Data Protection: Ensuring user consent and data minimization is critical.
  • Risk of data breaches or misuse if security protocols are weak.
  • Balancing openness with confidentiality, especially for sensitive government or health data.
• Infrastructure and Technical Capacity: Many public institutions lack the technical expertise or resources to build and maintain data exchanges.
  • High initial costs for setting up secure infrastructure, especially in rural or underfunded areas.
• Trust and Adoption: Citizens may be wary of sharing data due to lack of awareness or past misuse.
  • Building trust requires transparency, accountability, and robust grievance redressal mechanisms.
• Data Quality and Integrity: Inaccurate, outdated, or incomplete data can lead to poor outcomes.
  • Need for regular audits, validation mechanisms, and feedback loops.

Notable Examples of Successful Data Exchanges

• USA’s Health Information Exchanges (HIEs): It facilitates sharing of patient data across hospitals, labs, and clinics.
  • During COVID-19, HIEs helped track infections, manage hospital capacity, and coordinate vaccine distribution.
• European Open Data Portal: It provides access to thousands of datasets from EU institutions and member states.
  • Fuels research, transparency, and innovation across sectors like transport, environment, and education.
• India’s Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC): A decentralized data exchange protocol that allows buyers and sellers to transact across platforms.
  • It aims to democratize digital commerce by breaking platform monopolies and enabling interoperability.
• India’s Account Aggregator (AA) Framework: It enables secure, consent-based sharing of financial data between banks, insurers, and fintechs.
  • Over 1.1 billion accounts are now accessible via AA, empowering users to share data for loans, investments, and financial planning without compromising privacy.

State-led Innovations

• Agriculture Data Exchange (ADeX): It was launched with support from the Centre for Data in the Public Good, IISc Bengaluru, and the World Economic Forum.
  • It tackles the fragmentation of agricultural data in India, and boosts agri-tech innovation & policy targeting.
  • It embeds data consent, classification (public, private, personal), and secure sharing.
• TGDeX (Telangana’s AI Implementation Roadmap): It builds upon ADeX’s principles to enable cross-sector data sharing — including health, education, and mobility.
  • TGDeX provides datasets, compute power, open-source tools, and reusable models to innovators.
  • National Data and Analytics Platform (NDAP), India Urban Data Exchange (IUDX), and AI Kosh show growing traction, but Telangana’s TGDeX stands out for its state-level deployment and scale.
• Unique Land Parcel ID (ULPIN): It digitizes land records for transparency.
• CORD Blockchain (Open Trust Infrastructure): Verifiable credentials & decentralized data governance.

Conclusion & Way Forward

• India’s DPI model is rooted in consent-based architecture, exemplified by platforms like DigiLocker and Account Aggregator. Data exchanges need to uphold this ethos by:
  • Implementing data fiduciary principles;
  • Ensuring user consent and control;
  • Adopting privacy-preserving technologies like differential privacy and federated learning;
• Navigating the Challenges:
  • Adopt privacy-by-design principles: Create interoperability frameworks like India’s National Data & Analytics Platform (NDAP).
  • Foster public-private partnerships for innovation and capacity building;
  • Launch citizen awareness campaigns to build trust;
  • Establish independent data governance bodies for oversight
• India’s DPI evolution is entering a critical phase. By embracing data exchanges as public infrastructure, India can unlock massive value — not just in economic terms but in building a more equitable, efficient, and innovation-driven digital economy.

Source: BL