Centre moves to sell data from Smart Cities project

News:The government is planning to make health,education and financial data collected from more than 4,000 urban local bodies under its Smart Cities Mission public by 2024 and eventually monetising it.

Facts:

About India Urban Data Exchange(IUDX):

• India Urban Data Exchange is a research project under smart cities mission.
• The project is implemented by the Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) in collaboration with Indian Institute of Science(IISc), Bengaluru.
• The project aims to create an open source software platform for cities, industry and researchers to share Smart City data with each other.
• The project would now be expanded eventually leading to a marketplace which means it would be monetised in the future similar to the Unified Payments Interface(UPI) for bank accounts and digital payments.
• This will facilitate secure, authenticated and managed exchange of data amongst various data platforms in a uniform and seamless way.

Additional information:

About Smart Cities Mission:

• Smart Cities Mission is an urban renewal and rejuvenation program by the Government of India.
• It aims to develop 100 smart cities across the country by 2022 making them citizen friendly and sustainable.
• The Union Ministry of Urban Development is implementing the mission in collaboration with the state governments of the respective cities.