Dear Praachi, I think coordinated RTIs could help us part of the way.
As another lawyer, I'm willing to help out with the drafting, if you or others take the lead in terms of strategizing in terms of the departments and data sets to target.
Regards, Pranesh Praachi Misra <[email protected]> [2014-04-02 22:45:52 -0700]:
Hello, In view of the coming elections there has been a lot of talk about electoral boundaries, district maps etc. In the course of looking for geocoded pin code data earlier, I had come across the *Delhi **Geo-Spatial Data Infrastructure Act, 2011 (*link<http://www.delhi.gov.in/wps/wcm/connect/d8f3f20048251b1b813bb7ea9e7528b1/act.pdf?MOD=AJPERES&lmod=424882252> *). * The scope of the Act is very broad and envisages the use of geospatial data for delivery of public services across the board . So theoretically, crime, transport, landuse, waste related data should be available with them. The *GeoSpatial Delhi Limited *(link <http://delhi.gov.in/wps/wcm/connect/doit_geo/geo/Home>)has been created under it, and from the information available on the website charges departments for the use of its data. Its mandate also includes providing data for public use. The presentation <http://www.cips.org.in/public-sector-systems-government-innovations/documents/delhi-state-spatial-data-infrastrucutre.pdf>outlines the data collected by the body (see slide 17 onwards). Some articles on the same in Mint are here<http://www.livemint.com/Industry/stPBT2GcF4lkP055RCFb0O/Creating-a-digital-replica-of-Delhi-one-step-at-a-time.html>and here<http://www.livemint.com/Industry/SOinttbjYrKzwOcqfNaByM/Coming-up-a-satellite-technology-to-clear-urban-mess-in-Del.html> . Similar data collection initiatives have also been taken by Orissa<http://gis.ori.nic.in/>, Uttar Pradesh <http://emanchitra.up.nic.in/emanchitra/>, Kerala<http://ksdi.kerala.gov.in/KSDI/welcome.do>, etc . There is also NATMO <http://natmo.gov.in/index.htm>, Remote Sensing System <http://gis.nic.in/>, and this<https://gisserver.nic.in/gvsig/default.aspx> . The National Data Sharing Policy (link<https://nsdiindia.gov.in/nsdi/nsdiportal/meetings/gazette.pdf>) also requires making data open. Therefore, it appears to me that a lot of data is spread across different government agencies and locked up. Some resourcefulness is required to free the same, now that the Datameet group is really raging forward, some of us can take some time to drop be these agencies and see if they are open to making some of this data available. I am not sure if these topics have been discussed earlier, or if something is already in the works. Your thoughts are welcome. Praachi
-- Pranesh Prakash Policy Director, Centre for Internet and Society T: +91 80 40926283 | W: http://cis-india.org ------------------- Access to Knowledge Fellow, Information Society Project, Yale Law School M: +1 520 314 7147 | W: http://yaleisp.org PGP ID: 0x1D5C5F07 | Twitter: https://twitter.com/pranesh_prakash
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