The Chhattisgarh Government is envisioning a unique state-wide ‘Data Exchange Framework’ (DEF) between its various departments, officials informed.
As a result, the Chhattisgarh Infotech Promotion Society (CHiPS) is eager to conduct proof-of-concepts or pilots for the project, they informed.
In the current scenario, various state departments work in silos and there is no facility for real-time data exchange between them, owing primarily to issues of sensitivity of data, they informed.
But, this often leads to duplication of efforts on part of the departments where similar field exercises would need to be conducted for same purpose. Further, the lack of a common platform deprives the state for many opportunities of improving public service delivery, officials informed.
As per the envisioned proof-of-concept, beneficiary data along with sensitive information would be shared by the department, based on consent and protocols, with other departments as well. The platform should maintain all audit trails and logs regarding any exchanges of data, thereby bringing trust and accountability on the custodian/owner of citizen data, they informed.
Further, the Data Exchange Framework would also give us the opportunity to enable a Trigger Management Platform (TMP), which would auto-initiate inclusion/removal of beneficiaries from databases of schemes of different departments wherever they are eligible.
The triggers of Birth/Ageing, Death, Marriage, and Migration would be used to implement this. For example, if a certain beneficiary becomes eligible for a certain scheme after age of 18, and he/she has entries recorded on another scheme database of another different, then the TMP protocol would automatically register the individual as a beneficiary in the database of the particular scheme.
Similarly, if any of the departments are notified of the beneficiaries’ death or migration, that beneficiary’s name would be removed from all scheme databases of all departments where he or she becomes ineligible.
Owing to the sensitivity of the issue, and the issue of trust that comes when different departments share data with each other, it becomes utmost essential to have an irrefutable audit trail/log of any changes to the beneficiary data, and to have immutability of records, officials stated.
The proof-of-concept could be developed by considering dummy data that would be enough and sufficient to portray the functionalities.
Chhattisgarh has always taken proactive steps in adopting digital technologies for better enablement of e-Governance. Thus, being the IT nodal agency, CHiPS has been exploring emerging technologies that could transform and improve landscape of public service delivery in the state, and Blockchain technology has been its primary focus, officials informed.
Various states and countries have deployed Blockchain technology for limited use-cases, whereas many states are inviting Startups to conduct proof-of-concepts and pilots. The idea is to explore this nascent technology and identify suitable use-cases where its introduction could add some positive value. The proof-of-concepts and pilots also help the state in gaining insights on the prerequisites and necessities that will be coming during state-wide implementation stage.