New Delhi [India], August 20 (ANI): The Department of Drinking Water and Sanitation (DDWS), Ministry of Jal Shakti, has issued the Policy on Data Sharing, Interoperability and Stakeholder Access under Sujalam Bharat Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) on Thursday.
The aim is to establish a secure, federated, interoperable and accountable framework for sharing and governing rural drinking water data across States, Union Territories, local governance institutions and approved sectoral stakeholders.
The Policy marks an important milestone in the evolution of India’s rural drinking water sector from infrastructure creation to assured, accountable and service-oriented drinking water delivery. It provides a comprehensive framework to support infrastructure lifecycle management, source sustainability, service assurance, citizen-centric accountability and evidence-based decision-making.
This policy also establishes governance principles for data sharing, interoperability and stakeholder access within the Sujalam Bharat Digital Public Infrastructure. It promotes the use of common identifiers, standardised metadata, interoperable registries and secure digital services to enable seamless exchange of information while preserving institutional accountability, privacy and cybersecurity.
The key objective of this Policy is to enable governed and interoperable data exchange between DDWS, State/UTs, Gram Panchayats, Government organisations and authorised sectoral stakeholders.
The framework strengthens Panchayat-centric governance, citizen participation, grievance redressal, participatory asset monitoring and service accountability across the rural water ecosystem. Through approved and purpose-based access mechanisms, stakeholders may develop innovative solutions relating to operation and maintenance, water-quality monitoring, infrastructure management, predictive maintenance, geospatial planning, Digital Twins, Artificial Intelligence-enabled analytics and decision-support systems.
Recognising the importance of trust in digital ecosystems, the Policy incorporates robust provisions relating to privacy, personal data protection, cybersecurity, data classification, access governance and public-interest safeguards. It adopts a tiered data-access framework to ensure secure, responsible and purpose-limited use of information while protecting sensitive infrastructure and personal data.
The Policy further positions Sujalam Bharat as a long-term public digital infrastructure for rural water utility governance, supporting transparency, innovation, operational efficiency and sustainable service delivery.
With the release of this Policy, the department takes a significant step towards building a trusted digital foundation for rural drinking water governance and strengthening the delivery of reliable, sustainable and accountable water services for rural communities across the country. (ANI)
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