The United States and India will be working together on several fronts including the open Data.gov project and fighting cyber-crime.
The open Data.gov project initiated by Vivek Kundara, the first CIO of the US is a central repository of data collected by the government. The objective of this central and open repository is to make data easily available to the citizens for reference. Academics and journalists in the US have shown strong support for the project. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s office issued a fact sheet during her visit confirming that the two countries will be working together on the Data.gov project. As part of the commitment, India and US will collaborate in making the Data.gov project available to other interested countries.
India is expected to launch a similar initiative (data.gov.in) with information catalogued into various categories. Government agencies will have restricted access to sensitive data while the rest will be open to the general public. India’s National Knowledge Network, a high-speed network connecting universities across the nation for collaborative research can be leveraged in providing academic data.
As part of Hillary Clinton’s visit, India and US have strengthened their fight against cyber-crime. A Memorandum of Understanding signed by Deputy Secretary for the US Department of Homeland Security, Jane Holl Lute and R Chandrashekhar, secretary for India’s Department of Information Technology will put in place best practices for the government agencies to exchange critical information and expertise regarding cyber-crime. As part of the MoU, the following agencies will be working together along with the cyber security communities:
- Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In)
- Department of Information Technology
- Ministry of Communication and Information Technology
- Computer Emergency Readiness Team (US-CERT)
The bilateral developments on issues like cyber-crime and Data.gov show the growing exchange of IT talent between the two countries.
