National Data Governance

Data is today recognised as a strategic factor of production — as consequential to governance and economic growth as capital, labour and technology. Over the past decade, the Government of India has built one of the world's largest repositories of citizen, enterprise and sectoral data through Digital Public Infrastructure platforms such as Aadhaar, UPI, DigiLocker, GSTN and ABHA. However, much of this data remains locked in institutional silos, limiting its use for evidence-based policymaking, welfare targeting, Artificial Intelligence and private-sector innovation.

To address this, guided by the Prime Minister's observation that data-sharing silos within and between Ministries/Departments need to be broken, the Committee of Secretaries, chaired by the Cabinet Secretary on 15 May 2026, approved a National Framework for Data Sharing within and outside the Government. The Framework, prepared by MeitY, rests on four pillars:

Constituted by the Cabinet Secretariat vide Office Memorandum No. 171/1/1/2022-CA.V/CA.III dated 22 May 2026, pursuant to the decisions of the Committee of Secretaries dated 15 May 2026. Secretariat support is provided by the National e-Governance Division (NeGD), MeitY.

Each Ministry, Department and Government Organisation (MDO) is to constitute a dedicated Data Governance Committee to spearhead its Data Sharing Policy and its implementation — data classification; standardisation of data, metadata, APIs, registries and certificates; and use of data exchange platforms.

Status shown is indicative and will be updated as Ministries/Departments furnish information. Nodal officers may submit updates here.

As per the CoS decisions, all Central Ministries/Departments may formulate their Data Sharing Procedures — covering sharing via standardized APIs with end-to-end online API access approvals, consent mechanisms for personal/sensitive data, de-identification and anonymization, and dataset classification — clearly defining the circumstances governing intra-department, inter-department, State and open-access sharing. MeitY shares a model draft Procedure and provides handholding.

Status shown is indicative, pending inputs from Ministries/Departments. For Ministries with departments, the Data Sharing Procedure is tracked at the department level.

State Data Governance Committees, chaired by the Chief Secretary of the State/UT, align State-level data policies with the national framework, maintain inventories of State-owned datasets, monitor adoption of common data standards, oversee consent-based data sharing, and act as first-level coordination and grievance-resolution mechanisms. An advisory in this regard has been issued by MeitY to all States/UTs.

Status shown is indicative, pending responses from States/UTs to the MeitY advisory.

Each State/UT is to publish a State Data Sharing Policy and issue necessary office orders on data sharing, and may either develop a State Data Exchange Platform of its own or ride on the national platforms. States such as Punjab, Odisha, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Sikkim, Telangana and Chandigarh have earlier issued data policies, which may be aligned with the national framework.

Pre-framework State policies are listed for reference; alignment status will be updated on receipt of inputs from States/UTs.

A consolidated set of reference documents supporting implementation — the MeitY advisory to States, a model Data Sharing Procedure, MDDS and API standards, and the reference State policy.

• API Setu & NAPIX — consent-based individual data via managed APIs
• AI Kosh & IUDX — anonymized bulk data for AI and urban use cases
• DigiLocker — personal documents & credentials
• Entity Locker — business documents, licences & registrations