New Delhi, 7 June (IANS). According to Professor Ajay Kumar Sood, Principal Scientific Advisor (PSA) of the Government of India, alternative data sources and leading techniques are becoming increasingly important for ‘policy making’. He emphasized the need for the best policy combining traditional and alternative data sources.
In a two -day national workshop organized by the Ministry of Statistics and Program Implementation (MOSPI) in collaboration with NITI Aayog and World Bank, he said that these high frequency indicators are more dynamic and provide timely information, which can make policies more efficient and responsible.
Professor Ajay Kumar Sood said, “Traditional data sources indicate where we are, alternative data sources indicate which way we are moving forward. However, alternative data sources provide real -time information at very micro level but they cannot replace traditional data sources.”
This two -day workshop was attended by more than 450 participants from union ministries, state governments, World Bank including international organizations, educational and research institutes and private sector institutions.
Professor Sood referred to different use cases used effectively of alternative data sources.
He also emphasized the need for cooperation between government, academics, researchers, industry and international organizations for effective use of new techniques.
He also called for the moral use of AI and said that data security and privacy concerns cannot be compromised.
He said, “Development of technical-canonic structure for digital public infrastructure is a gift of India to the world.”
Secretary, Department of Science and Technology, Prof. Abhay Karandikar said that policy making is a complex process, including collecting data, consulting stakeholders and intensive analysis.
Dr. Saurabh Garg, Secretary, Ministry of Statistics and Program Implementation, said that there is a need to increase cooperation with various stakeholders to develop a strong statistical system to meet the needs of data in policy making.
He hoped that the Ministry of Statistics and Program Implementation in the next 3-6 months would be able to implement some of the cases identified to use alternative data sources and applications of leading technologies.
-IANS
SKT/
