MeitY’s AI Pe Charcha Underlines the Importance of Quality Non-personal Data for AI for Social Good

Data occupies the position of a fundamental building block for harnessing the potential of Artificial Intelligence and other emerging technologies. Focused on this thought, the National eGovernance Division (NeGD) under the Ministry of Electronics and IT (MeitY) recently organized an AI Pe Charcha (AI Dialogue) wherein the panellists discussed the importance of and approaches for enabling access to quality datasets for AI.

The session was chaired by Abhishek Singh, President & CEO, NeGD and had speakers from diverse backgrounds leading to an engaging session for Government officials, AI enthusiasts, AI practitioners, youth, and those who want to understand the role of data in catalyzing the AI innovation ecosystem.Panellists for this session of AI Pe Charcha included Srikanth Velamakanni, Group CEO Fractal Analytics, Gaurav Godhwani, Director & Co-founder, CivicDataLabs, Mr. Umakant Soni, Co-founder & CEO, ARTPARK.

In his opening remarks, Abhishek Singh noted the importance of data for artificial intelligence, shedding light on some of the key initiatives of the government of India to enhance access to quality datasets, including the National Data Governance Framework policy.

The eminent panellists spoke about the current open data ecosystem, challenges in providing access to quality datasets for AI, the role of different stakeholders in ensuring responsible use of data for innovation and the way forward for India.

Following the essence of the theme, the recently released report “Unlocking Potential of India’s Open Data” was also discussed during this session. NASSCOM, MeitY along with industry partners such as Fractal, Microsoft, Infosys, IDFC Institute, TCS & Amazon had constituted the Data Taskforce in 2021 to suggest ways to unlock the potential of India’s Open Government Data.

Srikanth Velamakanni who also chaired the Data Taskforce shared an overview of the taskforce’s work over the last 6 months as well as key insights that were uncovered. He noted the importance of making open government data a policy priority; focusing on high-value datasets, applying reasonable data classification policies to avoid the over-classification of data andadoption of international standards and tools.

Gaurav Godhwani spoke about his experience in building open data platforms and the challenges involved in sourcing, curating, and ensuring access to high-quality datasets under open access. He elaborated on the vision of the Government of India and way forward with the soon-to-be-launched India Data Platform.

Umakant Soni spoke about some of the biggest challenges that emerging AI companies and innovators face today with respect to data. He elaborated on how lack of access to a vast quantum of quality datasets acts as an inhibitor for the commercialization and scaling up of AI solutions and provided his recommendations for catalyzing the AI innovation ecosystem in India.

The AI Pe Charcha series has been initiated as a part of Responsible AI for Social Empowerment (RAISE), India's first global AI summit, which was organized by MeitY in 2020. Such initiatives by the Government of India have commenced a much-needed discourse on AI and would lead to certain positive, tangible meaningful changes in the overall economic and social sphere.