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Published by Authority

No. 6]

CHANDIGARH, FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 2021 (MAGHA 16, 1942 SAKA)

PARTI

Punjab Government Notifications and Orders

( 126 )

GOVERNMENT OF PUNJAB

DEPARTMENT OF GOVERNANCE REFORMS AND PUBLIC GRIEVANCES

(Governance Reforms-2 Branch)

NOTIFICATION

Punjab State Data Policy (PSDP)-2020

The 14th January, 2021

No. 02/01/2021-1GR2/17.-The Governor of Punjab is pleased to notify Punjab State Data Policy

(PSDP)- 2020 essential for efficient governance and transparent, effective, and accessible service delivery in

State of Punjab as under-

Preamble

Reliable data is essential for efficient governance and transparent, effective, and accessible service

delivery. Punjab has taken strides in digitization of data and is now moving to institutionalize a framework for

data collection, sharing, storage, and usage. Recognizing the potential utility and importance of the data generated

by the government departments, organizations, and institutions of the state for good governance, the Punjab

State Data Policy (PSDP) seeks to define the rules of engagement with regards to all aspects of data management

while remaining committed to protecting the privacy of citizens and making optimal use of data for evidence-

based decision-making.

The Department of Science and Technology, Government of India has issued the “National Data

Sharing and Accessibility Policy (NDSAP)” vide Gazette of India Notification No.II, Part 1, Sec 1 on 17th

March 2012”, the “National Map Policy (2005)” and the “Remote Sensing Data Policy (RSDP2001 and 2011)”

which spell out data sharing principles of information generated using public funds.

The Government of Punjab adopts the “Punjab State Data Policy (PSDP)” to facilitate easy access and

sharing of such Government-owned data, in an open format, for supporting sustainable and inclusive governance

and effective planning, implementation and monitoring of developmental programmes, managing and mitigating

disasters and scientific research aiding informed decisions, for the public good. Moreover, the PSDP shall be

cognizant of principles of Non-Redundancy, Openness, Flexibility Standards, Interoperability, Quality, Efficiency,

Accountability, Intellectual Property Right (IPR), Right to Privacy and Right to Information.

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Taking into consideration the amount of data stored and used by the government to carry out its daily

operations, especially welfare-oriented benefits to citizens, the data policy of the state shall lay down the principles

of storing and sharing all kinds of data held by the state government, including personal, transactional, institutional

(such as businesses, hospitals, schools) and process data (including but not limited to finances incurred, resources

and institutional support put into service delivery and other details such as time, operations, etc.). This policy

shall also provide to enable interoperability of data use cases for efficient use of existing data such as to minimize

duplication of data entry, leverage data maintained between various departments, and ensure leakages and

loopholes in service delivery are plugged.

II.

Definitions

For the purposes of this policy, unless the context otherwise requires:-

Cloud Technology – Internet based computing in which large groups of configurable remote

servers are networked to allow sharing of centralized data storage, data processing tasks and on-

demand access to computing resources.

Data – Representation of information, numerical compilations, and observations, documents,

facts, maps, images, charts, tables and figures, concepts in digital and/or analogue forms. This will

also include other forms of data that shall be generated and/or collected by the government in the

future, for example facial recognition data, etc.

Data Generation – Initial generation/collection of the data or subsequent addition of data to the

same specification. It may be categorized into primary data acquisition, satellite, and aerial by

designated agencies and secondary data collection under the same specification (refers to modification

or addition to the primary/initial data sets) through ground survey/data acquisition. This also covers

non-human data collection via drones, bots, and other emerging internet of things (IoT) devices.

Dataset – A named collection of logically related features including processed data or information.

De-identification - The process by which a data processor may remove, or mask identifiers from

personal data, or replace them with such other fictitious name or code that is unique to an individual

but does not, on its own, directly identify the individual.

Geospatial Data – All data which is geographically referenced.

Information – Processed data.

Machine Readable Format – A machine readable format (e.g.: - csv, json, xml, etc.) is a structured

data format that computers and software applications can easily and automatically recognize, read

and process.

Master Data – The data which has clear ownership and doesn’t change frequently and describes

the core entities of the state/organization. Master data includes a consistent and uniform set of

identifiers and attributes. For example, districts in Punjab, departments in the government, etc.

10)

Metadata – The information that describes the data sources and the time, place, and conditions

under which the data was created. Metadata informs the user of who, when, what, why, and how

data were generated. Metadata allows the data to be traced to a known origin and a known quality.

11)

Negative List – Non-sharable data as declared by the departments/ organizations; personal data

and the datasets which are confidential in nature and/or are in the interest of the country’s security

in not opening to the public.

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12)

Open Data – A dataset is said to be open if anyone is free to use, reuse, and redistribute it. It

should be machine readable and easily accessible.

13)

Personal Data – data about or relating to a person who is directly or indirectly identifiable, having

regard to any characteristic, trait, attribute or any other feature of the identity of such person,

whether online or offline, or any combination of such features with any other information, and

shall include any inference drawn from such data for the purpose of profiling.

14)

Raw Data - Raw data is data from the primary source. The processing of raw data results in

'information', such as a statistical table, graph, search result, etc.

15)

Sensitive Personal Data – Sensitive Data refers to personal data or information of a person

which consists of information relating to:

Password

ii)

Payment instrument details including bank account or credit card or debit card or other

iii)

Physical, physiological and mental health condition/s

iv)

Sex life and sexual orientation

Medical records and history

vi)

Biometric information

vii)

Genetic data

viii) Political opinions

ix)

Religious and philosophical beliefs

Any of the above information as provided to third party for providing service

xi)

Any of the above information received from third party for processing, stored or processed

under lawful contract or otherwise

16)

Shareable Data – Those data not covered under the scope of negative list and non-shareable data.

17)

State Data Center – The State Data Center for the Government of Punjab refers to the facility

owned and managed by the Department of Governance Reforms and Public Grievances to house

applications and data in SAS Nagar, Punjab, and any other such data centres and cloud services

approved by the Government of Punjab and/or Government of India.

18)

Transactional Data – Transactional data is the data that emanates from transaction of information,

finances, or service.

III.

Vision

The Vision of the PSDP is a State that has been transformed into a digitally empowered society

where the government leverages data and technology to optimize service delivery and citizens’ access

and participation is promoted via user-friendly and secure e-governance systems, and data is used for

evidence-based policymaking and programmatic decision making.

Need for Data Policy

In recent years, the Government of Punjab (GoP) has taken strides towards digitizing and

storing data related to the delivery of government services across policy areas. Increasingly, this

data is being used by planners and decision-makers to track progress and optimize service delivery

and empower citizens to access services with greater efficiency. These efforts, situated within a

broader national movement towards greater data-use, are important steps towards digital, data-

driven governance.

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There is a need to ensure equitable, productive, and sustainable development planning as well as

good and inclusive governance. The sharing of relevant data is imperative to facilitate effective and

transparent governance. Lack of appropriate standards and interoperability of data and information

systems leads to ineffective and suboptimal management and practices. This calls for the adoption of

data policy in the state which conceptualizes provisions for appropriate data management methods

encompassing the entire continum of data generation, handling, warehousing and accessibility by defining

data standards and processes as guiding principles for all Departments and institutions falling under their purview.

Scope

The “Punjab State Data Policy” shall apply to all data and information created, generated, collected, and

processed using public funds provided by the Government of Punjab, Central Government funds, and also

International donor organizations, directly or through authorized agencies by various Departments/ Organizations/

Agencies and Autonomous bodies of the Punjab State. All such data shall be stored and maintained in the

State Data Centre (SDC), SAS Nagar with adequate data management/security and with systems and procedures

in place for access and use by all stakeholders in the State as defined under this policy.

Benefits of the Policy

Maximizing use - Access to government-owned data will enable the more extensive use of the

information to deliver services and facilities in an efficient and transparent manner.

Interoperability to avoid duplication - By facilitating the sharing of required data across

departments, the need for separate bodies to collect the same data will be minimized. This will

result in significant time and cost-saving in data collection.

Maximized integration - Adoption of common standards and best practices across various datasets

and MIS would facilitate the integration of individual datasets.

Ownership information - Dedicated owners for each dataset and clear responsibilities for

implementation and maintenance of datasets shall provide for data digitization, accuracy, maintenance

and updation.

Better decision making - Availability of data will enable data-driven decision making along with

avenues and platforms for monitoring, reporting and planning.

Better tracking for policy implementation - Real-time availability of data (for example those

relating to weather, pollution, and traffic) will allow and open pathways for live tracking of policy

implementation and impact, especially for welfare schemes.

Enhance the efficiency of delivery of services - Data sharing and interoperability through this

policy will be instrumental in reducing leakages and plugging loopholes in the delivery of welfare services.

Incentivization to switch to data governance - The focus on insights and thus targeted impact

gained from analysis and interpretation of historical data shall incentivize departments and agencies

to adopt data- driven decision making.

Equity of access - Open data practices ensure better access to all bonafide users. The PSDP shall

enable the use of open access data by research and civil society organizations.

IV.

Data Classification

It would be incumbent upon all the Government Departments to define and allow access to and sharing of all the

data generated by them using government fund, subject to the following data access structure:

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Open Access: A dataset is said to be open if anyone is free to use, reuse, and redistribute it. Open Data

shall be easily accessible in machine- readable formats that are optimized for machine processing. Access to data

generated from public funding should be easy, timely, user- friendly, and web-based without any process of

registration/ authorization. This data shall be accessible at punjab.data.gov.in as well as other websites owned by the

Government and/or its institutions. Following is an indicative list of types of data which falls under Open Access:

Data of aggregates: This includes data such as Hospital beds/1000 population, Teacher-student

ratio by village/1000 population), Percentage of children fully immunized by primary health centres etc.

Processed/Value Added Data: This includes data such as GDP, per capita income, etc.

Data generated through delivery of government services: This includes data under outcome and

output indicators of delivery of government schemes and programs, e.g.- Literacy Rate, Infant

Mortality Rate etc. as well as process indicators on service delivery such as pendency, timely

resolutions of grievances, etc.

Geospatial data consisting of primarily satellite data, maps and unit-level data for the public good,

e.g.- location (GPS coordinates) and details of health facilities, sewa kendras, fair price shops,

public transport routes.

No personal or sensitive data shall fall under Open Access data. Open Access data should contain

low impact data i.e. wherein the loss of confidentiality, integrity or availability¹ is expected to have none

or limited adverse effect on the individuals and the government department who owns the information.

Registered Access: Datasets which are accessible only through a prescribed process of registration/

authorization by respective departments/ organizations will be available to the recognized institutions/

organization/ public users, through defined procedures. This shall primarily consist of raw data or

a database dump which has been masked for identifiers such that it can be used for research

purposes by academic/research/ civil society organizations.

Non-shareable: Sensitive Personal Data and the datasets which are confidential in nature and are

in the interest of the country’s security in not opening to the public would fall in the negative list.

Data which is explicitly prohibited from being shared as per Section 8 and Section 9 of the Right to

Information Act 2005. The RTI Act, 2005, and Right to Privacy judgment 2017 should be taken

into consideration while making this list. Few examples of non-shareable data are biometric

information, medical records, etc. Non-shareable data shall contain high impact data i.e. wherein

the loss of confidentiality, integrity or availability could be expected to have a severe or catastrophic

adverse effect on the government department who owns the information and individuals.

1 A loss of confidentiality is the unauthorized disclosure of information. A loss of integrity is the

unauthorized modification or destruction of information. A loss of availability is the disruption of

access to or use of information or an information system.

Data Governance Framework

The enforcement of the PSDP is critical in order to achieve the vision of a digitally empowered state.

Therefore, a streamlined data governance framework has been laid down for the implementation and supervision

of the PSDP. Good data governance is imperative for delivering quality services to citizens and for effective

policymaking. A data governance framework will help extract value from all the data held in the state, enabling

greater data access, sharing and integration at the state-level thus increasing overall efficiency and accountability.

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The following framework shall be adopted across all government departments and governmental organizations

in Punjab:

Ownership for Internal Governance – The ownership of all data shall reside with the department/ agency/

institution for which the data has been primarily generated directly or indirectly. In cases where the data is

being generated for multiple agencies, the department/ agency/ institution responsible for the execution and/or

coordination of the project shall be the primary owner of the data being generated. However, guidelines for

access to this data by all parties who require access for planning and executing the process shall be laid down

by the owner department/ agency/ institution as may be needed. For all data collected, generated

and/ or processed by the Government, it shall be the responsibility of the Owner Department to ensure that

relevant stakeholders at every stage of data generation, processing, storage, and use process are sensitized to

relevant data policies. The Owner Department shall also appoint nodal officers/ staff at each level of data

reporting, digitization, processing and management to ensure adherence to policies.

Collection and Processing

Data collection shall be conducted with the utmost integrity.- The data collected should be

free of bias. The desired outcomes of the service delivery or policy implementation should not

influence data entry. Further, the outcomes of the service delivery or policy implementation should not

affect the incentives for the frontline workers and other government officials involved in data collection.

Data collection shall be integrated with service delivery, where possible.- Frontline workers

and other government officials involved in the delivery of services to citizens shall collect relevant

program data as a regular part of program/ service processes.

Data shall be collected electronically where possible, and paper-based data will be digitized.

Investments shall be made to transition fully from paper-based systems like registers, diaries, and

forms, to electronic data collection platforms. Where paper-based data collection is necessary,

regular data entry processes shall be standardized to ensure digitization of all data. It must be

ensured that raw paper data is digitized without loss of information. All paper-based data collected

shall be digitized by the corresponding Department within twenty (20) working days of its collection.

Departments may request for an extension of this timeline for specific schemes/ programs/ datasets

by sending a written request to the State Data Steering Committee (SDSC) for approval.

Basic data cleaning shall be done systematically and automated where possible.- Data shall

be regularly run through automated processes and algorithms and other state-of-the-art data cleaning

mechanisms to verify and validate data for quality, accuracy and/or consistency. These automated

checks (such as mobile number fields should allow only 10 digits) shall be built into the data

collection platforms for all departments at the.

Input constraints and automatic data checks shall be used to standardize data entry quality.-

Data entry interfaces shall be designed such that extensive use of dropdowns, select one/select

multiple display options, and string validation rules is made to minimize data quality issues at the

entry stage. The concerned Department shall identify and implement such constraints and checks.

The technical expertise of DGR&PG may be leveraged for the implementation of such checks.

Data collection and storage shall be compliant with data privacy and security laws and best

practices.- Data collection shall be ethical and data security measures such as encryptions, firewalls,

and access controls shall be established to prevent unauthorized access to confidential data, data

manipulation and data loss.

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Quality and Relevance

Data shall be collected according to decision-making and reporting needs. Data is responsive

to decision-makers’ monitoring, reporting, and planning needs. The collection of data that does not

serve a clear purpose shall be minimized.

Data shall be regularly checked for quality.- Purposive or random samples of data shall regularly

be run through a standard list of data quality checks, and in-person supervision helps validate data

quality. The Department shall enforce these checks for all datasets in its purview every six (6) months.

Datasets shall be updated.- Updates shall occur on a real-time basis by digitization of data

collection. Where data is collected on paper, digitization shall be completed within twenty (20)

working days of collection of such data. Departments may request for an extension of this timeline

for specific schemes/ programs/ datasets by sending a written request to the Administrative Secretary,

Department of Governance Reforms and Public Grievances for approval. The State Data Steering

Committee (SDSC) shall be informed of the request and the final decision by the requesting Department.

Appropriate control mechanisms to keep a check on data manipulation.- shall be implemented

at each level, such as the provision of password protected edit rights to specific users only,

maintaining a log of access, entries and changes made to records to trace the user, date and time of

the entry/change, etc.

Collaborations for independent data audits for datasets.- where data is generated from the

information entered into the system shall be done by the Departments who own the information

being entered.

Interoperability

The Government Department(s) and Government organization(s) of the State of Punjab have a rich and

diverse repository of various kinds of data, which may overlap from duplication of data entry and/or

generation. Additionally, data collected, generated and/or processed by one department may be required

to improve service delivery and governance in another department. There is, therefore, a need to enable

streamlined interoperability of data systems between the departments in order to avoid duplication,

redundancies and leakages in service delivery. However, while the data structures, infrastructure and

systems shall be designed and built to enable streamlined interoperability, the access to any dataset

owned by one department/agency by another department/agency shall be exclusively on a need basis.

Departments/ agencies may submit their proposition for such requests to the SDSC for consideration

and approval such that the Chief Data Officer may coordinate for its implementation.

The following may be taken as guiding principles to build mechanisms for data interoperability within

and across Departments and Organizations in the State Government.

Metadata repositories shall be built, published, and updated regularly.- All Government

Departments and organizations shall invest in building and maintaining metadata repositories and publish

these to improve awareness of what data exists and whether and how datasets across geographies/

sectors/federal levels/time periods can be integrated.

Standardization of data objects that appear across datasets.- Regional hierarchies, population

subgroups, identifying data and other generic data objects that appear across datasets shall be stored

using common standards and guidelines built by DGR&PG so that data from across departments can be

integrated. Updates to the common schema shall be coordinated across departments.

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Datasets shall be stored in standard machine-readable formats.- Such formats are used by

other databases and therefore reduce compatibility issues, minimize conversion effort, and enable the

easy exchange of data.

Sharing and Access

The principles on which data sharing and accessibility need to be based include openness, flexibility,

transparency, legal conformity, protection of Intellectual Property, formal responsibility, professionalism,

compliance to set standards, interoperability, quality, security, efficiency, accountability, sustainability and

right to privacy. The following are general practices to ensure adherence to principles as listed above:

Data shall be published in machine-readable formats with easy bulk download options.-

Use of formats such as csv, xml, json etc. shall be promoted while minimizing the use of PDFs and

word documents to publish data. Data across geographical and time units shall be made available

for download in bulk.

Published data shall be made easily searchable and consistently available.- Data platforms

shall be organized in an intuitive manner so that users can easily find up-to-date metadata repositories

for all published datasets. Once published, datasets shall always be available and historical data be

well maintained.

Data shall be made available to decision-makers via user- friendly interfaces.- Data platforms

shall be designed to provide decision-makers with basic analytics (indicators and summary statistics)

and visualizations (such as bar graphs and trend lines) and the flexibility to adapt default analytics

to their decision- making needs. These interfaces shall be designed to update on a real-time basis,

with utmost accuracy. The usage of such interfaces by decision makers shall be promoted to

enhance data- driven governance and policy making in Punjab.

Dashboards shall be made available for citizens to engage with real-time data with minimal

access barriers.- Citizens’ access to data shall be facilitated by presenting data in simple, engaging

formats and by minimizing access barriers (such as captchas, confusing site navigation, or slow

page load times). Citizens shall be provided with the option to download underlying data for

further analysis. All Departments shall prepare and publish on their own website as well as on the

State open data portal which shall be built and maintained by DGR&PG, the list of all data held by

them. All the concerned Departments shall maintain, update and standardize such data regularly to

facilitate easy and uninterrupted access to these data by all the Government Departments and

bona fide users as per the conditions laid down under the data policy.

Security and Protection

All state departments and government organizations must abide by all the latest data security and

protection policy guidelines and frameworks of the Ministry of Electronics and Information

Technology (MeitY), Government of India. These guidelines include and are not limited to -

Use and implementation of state of the art monitoring tools

ii)

Security audit at the state data center by third party experts periodically (once in six months)

iii)

Periodic analysis of system audit logs to identify inappropriate and illegal access and to

mitigate security threats

iv)

Implementation of data back-up and recovery processes

Regular updates to all IT infrastructure

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DGR&PG shall be the nodal department for defining, maintaining and tracking the benchmarks on

data security and protection for the Government of Punjab. These benchmarks shall be derived

from policy guidelines of MeitY and any additional indicators as approved by the SDSC. A

department wise status report on compliance with guidelines on data protection and security shall

be provided to the SDSC at regular intervals by DGR&PG.

The DGR&PG may notify a detailed policy for data security and protection in continuation to and

in compliance of this policy.

Data Privacy

Privacy is a fundamental right, flowing from the right to life and personal liberty under Article 21

of the Constitution. Privacy of personal data and facts is an essential aspect of the right to privacy.

In this regard, no personal data shall be processed by any person, except for any specific, clear and

lawful purpose. The personal data shall be collected only to the extent that is necessary for the

purposes of processing of such personal data. Any processing of personal data can be done only

after de- identification.

The usage and transfer of personal data of citizens shall abide by the Information Technology (IT)

Rules, 2011, under the IT Act, 2000, and any other National or State Acts and/or policies which

may follow and cover Data Privacy in its scope.

All department(s)/ Government organization(s) to note that any Aadhaar Data shall be considered

to be highly sensitive and must be used only as per the provisions of the Aadhaar Act, 2016, as

may be amended from time to time.

The DGR&PG may notify a detailed policy for data privacy in continuation to and in compliance

of this policy.

Data continuity and retention

Data retention systems should be implemented to manage and ensure data retention for the period

necessary to satisfy the purposes of data collection.

Guidelines for data recovery, continuity and protection shall be prepared by DGR&PG.

General Guidelines

Every department should build a Management Information System (MIS) for the purpose of data

management and maintenance. Within eighteen (18) months from the date of notification of this

policy, all departments will operationalize their MIS and digitize all data held and/or managed and/

or used by the department. The MIS should be reviewed by the SDSC for standardization of data

across all departments in the state.

Detailed implementation guidelines including the technology and standards for data collection, maintenance,

and processing; and metadata would be published by the DGR&PG, Government of Punjab.

All departments shall maintain metadata repositories. All metadata will follow standards and will

contain adequate information on proper citation, access, contact information and discovery. Complete

information including methods, structure, semantics and quality control/ assurance is expected for

most datasets.

Metadata relating to geospatial datasets would contain information on scale, projection, datum,

resolution and date of acquisition of sources like satellite image/ aerial photos, etc.

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The Departments shall ensure that the software used in creating and generating geospatial data and

information in future complies with Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) standards.

All shareable data shall be made available, by the Departments, to a web-based citizen dashboard

on an ‘as-is where-is’ basis. Masked and de-identified data dumps shall also be available on the

interface for research and academic institutions.

All Departments will identify and prepare a comprehensive list of data sets maintained by them

mentioning the frequency of data updation for each dataset. Within six (6) months from the date of

notification of this policy, all departments will create a structure for each dataset with metadata in

a standardized format. All Departments will also categorize the datasets into non-shareable data,

registered access data and open access data within five (5) months of the notification of the policy,

which will be reviewed by the SDSC once every year.

For extension of any of the above mentioned timelines, the Departments may request to the State

Data Steering Committee in written for approval.

VI.

Implementation Guidelines

Supervision and Monitoring – Entities for Supervision and Monitoring of data policy shall

be set up at three levels. They shall be responsible to ensure compliance with the state data policy

and other relevant policies and processes.

A Stata Data Steering Committee (SDSC) will be created chaired by the Chief Secretary

to the Government of Punjab and comprising of the following members:

Administrative Secretary, DGR&PG

ii)

Administrative Secretary, Department of Planning

iii)

Director Governance Reforms, DGR&PG

iv)

3-5 officers/experts, as nominated by the Chairperson.

The composition of the Committee may be reviewed and revised as and when needed and at least

once in every 6 months. The Director Governance Reforms (DGR), DGR&PG shall act as the

Convener for this Committee.

The role of SDSC will be to coordinate and monitor the implementation of this policy through

close collaboration with all State Government Departments and agencies. SDSC will also establish

standards, undertake data analysis, interpretation and dissemination at the state level.

The SDSC shall appoint a Chief Data Officer (CDO) supported by a team which shall have a

relevant background in technology, public policy, economics, statistics, data analytics, law, and/or

other relevant subjects to support the SDSC on implementation of this policy and related projects.

The SDSC shall be responsible to:

Advise various Departments with regards to the use of data and information in the developmental

planning of the State.

ii)

Notify what constitutes as master data which shall be standardized across all the departments.

Approve and enforce any additions or changes to be made in the Master Data, such as the

creation of new districts or change in nomenclature of districts, for all the departments.

iii)

Formulate future policies/ guidelines regarding classification and use of data and information

in the planning process, disaster mitigation and scientific research of the State.

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iv)

Promote and facilitate the sharing of data and information among various State Government

Departments and other users with policy formulation and implementation focused on the

development and sustainable use of geospatial databases.

Review and monitor the implementation of data sharing and accessibility practices every

quarter

All Departments will constitute a Department Data Cell under the chairmanship of the Department

Administrative Secretary. A Data Officer will be appointed by the Administrative Secretary who

shall be exclusively responsible for supervising and ensuring compliance to the PSDP within the

Department as well as undertake practices for data digitization, management, processing, quality,

and analysis for evidence-based decision making.

The Data Officer shall report to the Administrative Secretary and send the Department's review

report on the implementation of PSDP to the CDO every 3 months. In addition to the Data

Officer, it is recommended that the department also recruit or appoint additional staff under the

data cell as per requirement.

This Cell shall also be responsible for sharing, publishing, and standardization of the Departments’

data and for coordinating with SDSC on a regular basis.

This Cell shall serve as the nodal agency for implementation of all data governance-related practices

within the Department for this as well as future policies relevant to governance.

A District Data Cell shall be constituted in each district under the chairpersonship of the Deputy

Commissioner to supervise, coordinate and ensure compliance to this policy at the district level as

well as undertake practices for data digitization, management, processing and analysis for evidence-

based decision making.

The manpower with the requisite skills for the District Data Cell in each district may be provided

by the Department of Planning.

The District Data Cell shall coordinate with the Department Data Cells as well as the Chief Data

Officer to ensure that all practices, as outlined under this policy, like those spearheaded by the Chief

Data Officer and/or the Department Data Officers are implemented in their respective districts.

In addition to these internal teams, the SDSC, under the chairpersonship of the Chief Secretary,

shall constitute an Expert Group for Data Governance with individuals and organizations outside

the government who are reputed in the fields of data management, data-driven decision making

and evidence-based policy and development.

This Expert Group shall review the practices, standards, guidelines, metadata and mechanisms for

data digitization, quality and security to suggest improvements.

This Expert Group shall meet at least once in every 6 months with the SDSC, the Chief Data

Officer and the Department Data Officers for this discussion.

Storage and dataset organization

All Departments will store their datasets at State Data Centre as defined under Section II-17. The

DGR&PG would be responsible for complying with all the data protection and security protocols.

The Departments may also store their data on another cloud technology service as a backup if

required.

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Each Department shall create and maintain a single common comprehensive repository of its

beneficiaries/ users which shall act as the single source of truth for the delivery of all services

under the department to those beneficiaries/ users. This shall be known as the ‘Citizen Register’.

The Department shall ensure that this database is kept updated for efficient service delivery.

Each Department shall create and maintain a single comprehensive repository of its employees

and all staff/ workers engaged to work with the Department temporarily or permanently, paid as

well as unpaid. This shall be known as the ‘Employees Register’. The Department shall ensure

that this database is kept updated and can be appropriately integrated with other human resource

management platforms in use by the Government.

For some entities, as listed below, a specific department shall be responsible to create and maintain

a data repository related to the type of entity and all other departments shall take this repository as

the single source of truth for the type of entity for all transactional and service delivery purposes:

•

The Department of Industries and Commerce shall create and maintain a repository of all

commercial as well as non-commercial enterprises registered in and/or operating in Punjab. This

shall be known as the ‘Business Register’. The Department of Industries and Commerce shall

ensure that this database is regularly updated and reliable for use and processing.

•

The Department of Revenue, Rehabilitation and Disaster Management shall create and maintain a

repository of all falling within the boundaries of Punjab. This shall be known as the ‘Land Register’.

The Department shall ensure that this database is regularly updated and reliable for use and processing.

•

More items under this list may be notified by the SDSC, as per requirement.

VII.

Data for Decision Making

In order to encourage data driven decision making and evidence based policies, the following measures

shall be taken:

The Chief Data Officer shall be responsible to prepare outcome based budget propositions with

the Department Data Officers such that it can be used by the Department of Planning and

Department of Finance for evidence based budget allocation.

The Chief Data Officer and the Department Data Officers shall actively engage with research,

academic and civil society organizations on purposes of data analysis and interpretation that can

support the department/s with insights that enable evidence-based decision making and anticipatory

innovation governance.

Reports and dynamic dashboards shall be developed and maintained with input, output and outcome

indicators to indicate the socio- economic progress made by the Government under each sector/

department/ district in the State. Efforts shall be made to also make accessible data on budget

allocation and expenditure for each scheme and programmatic intervention.

VIII.

Training and Skill Development

Alongside a strong IT infrastructure, governance framework and guidelines for data governance, it is crucial

that the government manpower is regularly upskilled on technical skills, practices and know-how of data

handling, management and use such that this policy may be successfully implemented, and data may be used

to its potential for evidence-based decision making. Training and skill development shall be designed to equip

all government manpower with the appropriate and up-to-date knowledge and skill sets such that a culture of

data-driven governance is encouraged and adopted by all in the Government of Punjab.

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SDSC, in consultation with the Expert Group, shall lay down a plan for regular training and skill

development of all government manpower, especially the manpower involved in data collection,

processing, management and/or use.

Under the guidance of the SDSC, the DGR&PG and Department of Planning shall develop training

modules which shall be made available online and can be used by all officials and staff engaged in

data collection, management, processing and/or use to enhance their skills on the matter.

The Department of Planning shall develop, make available, maintain and regularly update content

on data governance including data handling, management and use.

The DGR&PG shall develop, make available, maintain and regularly update content on the IT

infrastructure and protocols used for data collection, processing, management and use.

The DGR&PG shall also build a common platform where this content can be accessed and used

by all government officials and staff.

The Chief Data Officer under the SDSC shall be responsible for necessary coordination and

execution of this exercise, in consultation with the Department Data Officers and the District Data

Cells.

All training shall be customized to the requirement at each level of data governance and management.

Special emphasis shall be given to the training of district level officers and staff involved in data

collection, cleaning, handling, reporting and processing at the granular level.

Departments may enter into collaborations with universities, academia and other such knowledge

partners for designing and implementation of skill building modules, data-driven innovations and/

or other related initiatives.

IX.

Continuous Improvement

Periodic Review of Data Policy:

This policy shall be reviewed by the SDSC in coordination with the Expert Group, at least once every

2 years to update and revise the policy as may be required in accordance with the applicable laws,

infrastructure and other developments.

Third-party assessment of policy implementation and practices:

As has been mentioned under Section VIII-1-b, the Chief Data Officer under the guidance of the SDSC

and the Department Data Officers under the guidance of their respective Administrative Secretaries

shall actively build collaborations with external organizations for third party audit and assessment of

datasets generated from information being entered into the MIS; guidelines being used to process and

use the datasets under

the MIS; and the MIS being used by each department/agency. Such assessments

are recommended to be done once every year.

Budget Provisions

The implementation of Punjab State Data Policy is expected to entail expenditures for both data owners

and data managers for data conversion, data refinement, data storage, quality upgradation, etc.

The administrative departments/public organizations may approach the Department of Finance for

appropriate budget allocation in this regard.

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XI.

Conclusion

The State Data Policy is formulated with a mandate of using Government owned data and information

in the interest of citizens of the State. In line with this policy, various departments will be encouraged to

share data and information with each other and other stakeholders including citizens in order to enable

data-driven planning and progress tracking thereof. The Punjab State Data Policy will provide greater

scope for better, data-informed decision making in the State while adhering to the highest data protection

standards and commitment to the principles of Data Privacy.

The scope and objectives of this policy may be expanded and enriched in future, as the need may be.

XII.

Annexure: Use Cases

A few use cases of where this policy can help improve governance and support evidence based decision

making are shared below:

Use Case 1 - Integrating ICDS and Health data systems to improve coordination between

Anganwadi Workers (AWW), Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHA), and Auxiliary Nurses

and Midwives (ANM)

AWW, ground functionaries under the Department of Social Security & Women and Child Development,

and ASHAs, and ANMs, under the Department of Health & Family Welfare, have overlapping mandates

to provide maternal and child health and nutrition services, there is no formal mechanism for these three

crucial frontline workers to share data and coordinate effectively. Currently, ASHAs and AWW identify

beneficiaries and mobilize community members by conducting home visits, and informally but often

independently share data with the ANM, who then delivers key health services like immunizations,

antenatal care, basic diagnostics, treatment, and referrals.

Integrating and streamlining the data systems in the two departments used by these three workers –

especially systems used to identify beneficiaries and track their outcomes – would help promote the

convergence. This a major goal under the POSHAN Abhiyaan initiative, which will provide a host of

benefits such as enabling better targeting and prioritization of home visits, promoting accountability for

case identification and ensuring that no beneficiaries are missed, and minimizing the duplication of data

collection effort.

For example, AWWs are responsible for conducting growth monitoring every month, which means they

are best placed to identify children who are suffering from severe acute malnutrition (SAM). However,

it is the ANM who delivers the care to SAM children. If AWWs and ANM use a shared portal where the

AWW can mark SAM children identified during her round and send a notification to the ANM, the

ANMs can prioritize their house visits more effectively than they are in status quo, where such data

sharing does not happen, or happens in an unstructured, informal way. Similar use cases exist for other

overlapping beneficiary groups (such as pregnant and lactating women).

Use Case 2: Linking cadastral maps to ownership and cultivation data to create a geo tagged

village level planning tool

The Revenue department is in the process of digitizing Punjab’s cadastral maps. This could be an

opportunity to create a powerful map-based planning tool that links the digital cadastral maps to the

Record of Rights and mutations data, crop inspection data, and village level administrative data. This

can be facilitated through interdepartmental data sharing among the Department of Revenue, Rehabilitation

& Disaster, Department of Agriculture and Department of Rural Development and Panchayats. Linking

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these data sources, would allow a user to theoretically click on any land parcel in any village to understand

the agricultural details such as the cultivation arrangement, type of soil, principal kharif and rabi crops,

and irrigation system as well as understand whether the land is currently under dispute, and potentially

what the ownership structure is. Most of these data points are being captured by the local revenue

officers but are currently only available in single PDFs in the digitized records of rights and the crop

inspection registers.

An integrated planning tool like this could be of use to different decision makers such as someone trying

to identify vulnerable villages/areas within a village, or someone trying to assess eligibility for various

agricultural schemes (such as PM KISAN, where availing benefits requires some proof of land ownership).

Such data, visualized at this level of detail, would also inform infrastructure planning (such as by

allowing a user to assess where there is empty land to build on, or whether certain areas are under

dispute, etc.)

Use Case 3: Linking the Department of School Education’s student database with the Department

of Social Security & Women and Child Development and Department of Water Supply &

Sanitation to assess schemes focusing on girls and people with disabilities (PWD).

The Department of School Education has a huge student database which is managed through ePunjab

School MIS. This database has information on personal and financial records of each student. This data

can be shared with the Department of Social Security & Women and Child Development and the

Department of Health to facilitate schemes that focus on indicators and outcomes pertaining to younger

and adolescent girls, and people with disabilities (PWD), such as Beti Bachao Beti Padhao, Poshan

Abhiyaan, and so on. For example, the dataset on ‘separate toilets for girls in schools’ will be owned by

the Department of School Education, and the Department of Social Security and Women and Child

Development, and the Department.

ANIRUDH TEWARI, IAS,

Additional Chief Secretary,

Chandigarh

Department of Governance Reforms

and Public Grievances.

2217/02-2021/Pb. Govt. Press, S.A.S. Nagar