Latest news with #UnifiedDataHub
Indian Express
10-05-2025
- Business
- Indian Express
Govt picks 6 depts to implement pilot phase of ‘unified data hub' project
The Delhi government has selected six key departments to implement the pilot phase of its ambitious Unified Data Hub (UDH) project, which will consolidate data from various departments in a single space to ensure only eligible people avail of the benefits of its welfare schemes. The IT department, which is executing this project, is planning to set up a Project Monitoring Unit (PMU) to facilitate the creation of the data hub. For this, it has selected these six departments -— Food, Civil Supplies & Consumer Affairs; Women & Child Development; Social Welfare; Revenue; Labour; and Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) for the pilot phase. The IT department has directed these departments to nominate a nodal officer on priority for this project. 'It is requested to nominate a nodal officer (specifically from admin) and a technical team lead of the respective departments on priority so that the PMU may start its functionality in accordance with the creation of UDH,' the department said in a recent order. The core objective of UDH is to create 'golden records' of beneficiaries — single, verified, and unified data profiles of citizens — by resolving data duplication and inconsistencies across existing departmental systems. 'The IT Department is in the process of creating and implementing the UDH as a 'single source of truth' for the Delhi government. The UDH may play a vital role in proactive governance viz. to improve data accessibility and availability, enhance data quality and consistency, accelerate data insights and decision-making, and increase operational efficiency and cost savings,' said the department. Further, the department had already floated tenders for creating and implementing the platform, where personal and household details of Delhi residents will be integrated, and unique identification numbers will be given to all Delhi residents. Details that will be collected include personal and household data of citizens from all departments: ration details from the Food and Civil Supplies Department; registered household details from Delhi Jal Board, Power Department, Trade and Taxes Department; birth and death details, caste and religion information from the MCD; and others. It will also get All this will be integrated into one platform to create a single repository, said officials.
Indian Express
09-05-2025
- Business
- Indian Express
Ration card, bank details, caste & religion: Delhi govt to compile citizen data for ‘unified' portal
Names of residents, their addresses, caste, educational qualifications, number of children, vehicles owned, bank details: These are among several details of Delhiites that will be collected and soon be available in a single space on the Delhi government's upcoming unified data platform. The Information Technology (IT) department has floated tenders requesting proposals to implement the platform. Officials said the selected bidder will have to submit the proposal within 180 days. On Tuesday, The Indian Express reported that the government is planning to create a first-of-its-kind 'Unified Data Hub (UDH)', which will consolidate data from various departments, to ensure only eligible people avail of the benefits of its welfare schemes. The core objective of UDH is to create 'golden records' of beneficiaries — single, verified, and unified data profiles of citizens — by resolving data duplication and inconsistencies across existing departmental systems, said officials. Details that will be collected include personal and household data of citizens from all departments: ration details from the Food and Civil Supplies Department; registered household details from Delhi Jal Board, Power Department, Trade and Taxes Department; birth and death details, caste and religion information from the MCD; and others. It will also get All this will be integrated into one platform to create a single repository, said officials. A senior government official said, 'Presently, the government uses an e-district portal to transfer benefits and subsidies of various social welfare schemes directly into the bank account of beneficiaries. But, there is no platform wherein data is readily available to plan schemes or to identify beneficiaries.' Officials said to an extent, Aadhaar card details can help in ensuring that nobody else claims the share of benefits by impersonating a beneficiary. 'However, there are still some challenges with the process employed by the e-district/ department portal at present. For example, it primarily caters to scholarships. A 360-degree view of both the beneficiary and the state social benefit system is not available. There is no facility to collect data effectively for planning and administering social benefit schemes. It also does not maintain historical data or support household-level analysis of payouts made before Aadhaar linkage,' said the officials. Officials said the portal has records of only registered citizens — not an exhaustive database of all eligible residents of the state — primarily pertaining to individuals and not families. 'As integrated registries are not available, onboarding of new schemes is time-consuming… All services are application-based, and a complete view of the services availed by citizens is not available. Due to this, the government has to document and collect fresh data every time a social welfare scheme or policy is being developed… For instance, the government does not have a consolidated data of women in Delhi who are eligible for the Mahila Samriddhi Yojana,' said an official. Officials said once the hub is developed, the government will provide a unique identification number to all citizens. 'Through this, whenever a new scheme is implemented, the government will have readily available data to identify beneficiaries and decide eligibility criteria for implementing new welfare schemes… It can also monitor individual beneficiaries for inclusion into or exclusion from a particular scheme based on social and financial status,' said the official. Officials said the data will also help the government plan and improve utilisation budgets across schemes. Officials said the unique ID number will also help citizens while registering vehicles, applying for passports, getting a water connection, or changing their address. Officials said a Project Monitoring Unit (PMU) is being set up to facilitate the creation of the hub. They said the IT department has selected the Food, Civil Supplies & Consumer Affairs, WCD, Social Welfare, Revenue, and Labour departments, and the MCD on a pilot basis. It has directed these departments to nominate a nodal officer and a technical team lead of the respective departments on priority, so that the PMU may start functioning in accordance with the creation of the UDH.
Indian Express
06-05-2025
- Business
- Indian Express
Soon, a unified data hub will weed out those ineligible for Delhi's welfare schemes. Here's how
The Delhi government is planning to create a first-of-its-kind 'Unified Data Hub (UDH)', which will consolidate data from various departments, to ensure only eligible people avail of the benefits of its welfare schemes. Sources said these records could be used while rolling out the Mahila Samriddhi Yojana, which promises Rs 2,500 to eligible women beneficiaries. The scheme is yet to be launched, and the eligibility criteria is being decided. Besides this, the government has already started the verification process of ration cards and of other welfare schemes like pension for widows. Chief Minister Rekha Gupta, in her maiden Budget speech, had said the BJP government will launch a 'verification campaign' so that benefits of welfare measures only reach 'genuine Delhiites' and non-residents — especially Rohingya and Bangladeshis — will not be able to avail of it. How will it work? The core objective of UDH is to create 'golden records' of beneficiaries — single, verified, and unified data profiles of citizens — by resolving data duplication and inconsistencies across existing departmental systems, said officials. 'This 'golden record' will track attributes like profession and services availed, and support social registries for outreach, registration, and eligibility determination for social programmes,' added the official. Explaining how the hub will function, officials said it will integrate all data. 'It will be a centralised data repository where data from all departments will be stored, collaborated, and updated in real time by a permissioned entity… It will generate a unique, accurate and de-duplicated record for every beneficiary using smart matching algorithms; enable precise identification of beneficiaries; and reduce instances of multiple claims and benefit leakage.' According to officials, this data hub is being developed by the Information Technology department, which aims to build an integrated digital infrastructure to enhance citizen-centric governance. The government will soon float a tender to develop the ' Delhi Unified Citizen Data Platform'. What are its features? Officials said it will provide a dashboard and reports for evidence-based policy formulation. It will ensure compliance with applicable data protection regulations, maintaining high standards of data security and confidentiality, added officials. A unique identification number will be created for each citizen, officials said, to maintain the master record and manage changes to citizen data received from departmental databases. This unique identification number will be available to all departmental databases. It will also be augmented with a household identification number — a unique record of all households, with contributing citizen records of the household. Officials said if a person's Aadhaar is linked to a ration card, that ration card number will be used as the family ID for everyone linked to it. If the Aadhaar isn't linked to any ration card, the person will be able to create a family ID by entering Aadhaar details manually. As part of the initiative, the government sought data from all departments, which will be verified and integrated into this hub. Depts submit data Officials said several departments, such as Food and Supplies (F&P), Principal Accounts Office, and Revenue Department, have shared their records with the IT Department. On a preliminary analysis of these records, an official said, 5,621 government employees with ration-card numbers were found — they are ineligible to avail this benefit. Around 395 of these beneficiaries were listed as the head of family in ration card records. Officials also said another 3,072 ration-card beneficiaries obtained income certificates (for income less than 1 lakh) from the Revenue department despite not being eligible. Recently, the Women and Child Development Department identified about 25,000 ineligible women receiving financial assistance under the Delhi Pension Scheme for Women in Distress, said officials. The government has shared the list of government employees with ration cards with the F&S department and officials concerned to initiate suitable action against them, including recovery of benefits taken, in coordination with the Department of Food Supplies and Consumer Affairs.
