Nitin Gadkari
Days after it cleared a policy to share vehicle registration data collected by the Road Transport Ministry, the government on Wednesday said all checks and balances would be put in place to ensure that the data shared under the policy is not misused.
The "bulk data sharing" policy, which would enable the government to monetize the vehicle registration certificate database, was approved by the government last week.
As per the new policy, vehicle registration data could be shared "in a controlled manner", and in encrypted form, with organizations registered in India, and with Indian residents or companies as the majority stakeholders. Such organizations would be able to purchase access to bulk data after paying prescribed charges.
While the data is already being shared with some agencies like the police, banks and vehicle insurance companies, a top government official told IANS that the policy would only streamline this process and standardise it.
"If someone wants to use this data, now there is a standard policy. Pay the charges and use it. Data that has been collected would be used for specific purposes like vehicle theft, cross-verification and so on... For instance, currently it is shared with car-sale portals where it is important to do cross-verification," the official said.
On privacy concerns arising out of this move, he said all necessary measures are being taken to ensure there is no misuse of data.
"Checks and balances are being put in place to ensure there is no misuse of data. Technology will always throw new challenges and we will do whatever is required to counter those challenges," the official said.
While this access to bulk data would cost Rs 3 crore for commercial organisations for the current year, educational institutions would be able to get access for "research purposes" by paying Rs 5 lakh. The charges would be revised every year accommodating an increase of 5 per cent annually, as per the policy.
According to the government, the move to streamline sharing of vehicles registration data would benefit the transport and automobile industries.
