Delhi, April 27:The Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) is organising one-and-a-half-day National Deliberative Summit on "Harmonizing Administrative Data for Governance" with States/UTs and other stakeholders on 29-30th April 2026 in Bhubaneswar, Odisha.
The summit is being orgainsed as a follow up of the 5th National Conference of Chief Secretaries of State/UT held in December 2025. The Summit will help in building consensus on the action plan and timelines for harmonizing and making administrative data ready for wider use in policy making and governance.
Prelude to the Summit, a National Consultative Workshop with States/UTs/ Central Ministries/ Departments and other stakeholders was conducted on 24th February in New Delhi where States/ UTs were requested to conduct internal consultative workshops to build common understanding around the theme. These internal consultations were designed to engage line departments as well as field-level functionaries so that discussions were grounded in operational reality. The primary objectives were to map existing data systems and grassroots constraints, assess current readiness for data harmonization and interoperability. Another key objective of the internal workshops was to identify and prioritise cross-departmental datasets and use cases capable of delivering immediate value.
Internal workshops were organised by States/UTs in the month of March and April 2026. Based on the feedbacks of the States/UT level internal workshops, a note for deliberation in the Summit has been prepared which is available at https://www.mospi.gov.in/uploads/announcements/announcements_1776852884237_2790a90e-d136-4a4e-be41-0aa4b626408a_Final_Note_WS_2104.pdf The note has a focus on data harmonization and ecosystem development.
The requirement of repurposing administrative datasets for use in policy decisions and service delivery is the main theme on which the deliberations have been designed for 29-30 April 2026. As governance increasingly demands responsiveness and real-time insights, interoperable administrative datasets across departments emerge as a critical pillar for strengthening evidence-based decision-making at the State /UT level. Recognising the need, several foundational building blocks for a harmonized data architecture are already in place which may be accessed at https://mospi.gov.in/data-governance-guidelines and https://egovstandards.gov.in.. These include enabling policy frameworks for data dissemination and sharing, nationally notified standards for metadata, standard codes and classifications, and unique identifiers, quality assessment frameworks, and multiple discovery and dissemination platforms. Collectively, these provide the legal, technical, and institutional scaffolding required for effective data use. The discussions of the Summit will build on this context of multiple guidelines of data harmonisation to arrive at a way forward to have the necessary institutional ecosystem so that administrative datasets are repurposed.
It is envisaged that there will be measurable improvements in the inventory of harmonized datasets at the State/UT level. Momentum for States/UTs action are expected to be generated for timely action towards this objective. The discussion will further explore on developing an enabling ecosystem that can facilitate a sustained increase in the number of harmonized datasets. Accordingly, the focus on action plan will also be on sustained data harmonization and interoperability activities with the ultimate aim of making datasets available on data exchange platforms. The data processes—from generation to sharing—will be progressively automated to meet the objective. The preliminary action plan would involve identification and harmonization of all datasets required for regular departmental functioning, including legacy datasets.
The National Level Deliberative Summit is an initiative to formulate a comprehensive data harmonization roadmap aligned with the global best practices. As States/UTs progress along this roadmap, a critical next step will be the transition towards unified data systems and making data AI ready. In parallel, Central Ministries may lead by example by leveraging existing administrative data to demonstrate high-impact use cases of data integration. Ultimately, the diligent execution of this shared roadmap may eradicate isolated manual processes, bridge existing departmental silos, and establish a highly secure, AI-ready data compounding ecosystem. This framework will fundamentally transform India's administrative data architecture into a powerful engine for precise programme targeting, efficient public resource management, and outcome-driven governance.
The Summit will be attended by officers of the Planning and IT Departments of State and UT governments, officers from select Central Ministry/Departments and other stakeholders. Experts from government, international agencies, think tanks and academia will deliberate on various aspects of harmonization of administrative data and interoperability and ecosystem development to facilitate States/UTs in advancing the theme of the Summit. To serve the objective of having a consensus around the roadmap, discussions during the Summit will have presentations from senior State/UT officers on the current preparedness and roadmap to address challenges. Various dimensions of data harmonisation leading to interoperability of datasets and the various technological aspects which will be useful to drive administrative data reuse programmes at State/UT level will be discussed.
The highlight of the Summit is participation of Hon’ble Minister of State (Independent Charge) of Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation and the Hon’ble Deputy Chief Minister of Odisha in the inaugural session starting at 10 am on 29th April 2026.
