Make India big centre for data analysis: Ravi Shankar Prasad tells entrepreneurs

New Delhi: Minister for Electronics and Information Technology, Ravi Shankar Prasad, on Wednesday urged Indian entrepreneurs to help make country a big centre for data analysis.

“How can you help India become a big centre of data analysis? ...as someone said, data is the new oil," Prasad said, taking a cue from industrialist Mukesh Ambani’s often repeated statement.

Addressing an event to recognise start-up ventures jointly organised by MeitY, Assocham and Ericsson, the Union Minister also said the government needed data for policy making but the data procured should be anonymous.

Prasad gave an analogy and said: "Suppose in a particular area a large number of children get affected by some diseases and the government wants to have a policy to help them. I seek your (start-ups) support. You must have the data, why this particular ailment is happening in this part of the country -- geographical, social, economic (data)."

"But data must be anonymous, so that victims people are not known," the minister added.

Explaining his stand on data privacy, Prasad said, "There has to be a balance between data availability, data utility, data innovation, data anonymity and data privacy."

Saying that "we generate a lot of data", the minister added that it should be properly safeguarded.