Bhubaneswar: October 17: Odisha Open Government Data Portal has been launched by Chief Secretary Sri Aditya Prasad Padhi today morning. .Sri Padhi launched it in the Workshop on Open Data Sharing organized in the Secretariat conference hall today. Addressing the Workshop as the Chief Guest Sri Padhi said, “Data is the most valuable asset in the world today. Artificial intelligence, digital learning and learning through the machines are emerging as the effective methods for present and future; and, these devices bank upon the data repository” He added that “It is extremely important for Govt departments to put more and more data on public platform for use of citizens and civil society”. The portal was launched under the title “Odisha.data.gov.in “.
Secretary Electronics & IT Sri Ashok Kumar Meena while introducing the Workshop and the Portal said, “Govt departments gather a lot of data in course of their functioning and implementation of developmental programmes. These data are very useful not only for governance but also for learning, research and awareness. The Odisha Open Govt data Portal has been launched with the prime objective of sharing data with people.” He requested various service delivery departments like health & family welfare, education, women & child development etc to upload their data on the platform. Each department was asked to upload at least 10 data faces within coming 7 days in the portal and go on adding to that regularly.
Replying to a media query, Smt Alaka Mishra , Head of the Open Govt Data System, Govt of India said, “ with the initiative of launching the portal ‘odisha.data.gov.in’ State has opened up its data base for use by the people, journalists, academia and other information users”. She expressed the hope that within a short span of about 6 months this portal would have lots of useful data in usable formats.
The Workshop was organized in 2 sessions. In the first session the theme experts like Smt Nandita Choudhury, Deputy Director General NIC, Head Open Govt Data System Smt Mishra, Special Secretary IT Sri Rudra Narayan Palai presented various aspects of the open data policy. The normative provisions and procedures for uploading of the data on open platform, its uses and benefits from the view points of service delivery and governance were discussed in the sessions. Odisha Open Data Policy and Central Open Data Policy were discussed in detail. In the Second session the Nodal Officers and Chief Data Officers of various departments were imparted practical training. They were provided hands on practice about various techniques, tools and Apps developed for handling the data.
The experts said that the data placed in the open data portal could be down loaded, transferred digitally and used to be developed to various apps for further use etc. Govt India has already developed a open data licensing system for adding value to the Govt data and developing those for commercial use.
The Principal Secretaries, Secretaries, Special Secretaries along with senior officers from various departments participated in the Workshop.
