Kerala has given in-principle approval to the draft Keralam State Data Policy 2026, allowing startups, industries and other private entities to access certain anonymised government data for a fee through a proposed state data exchange platform.
According to an order issued by the state Electronics and Information Technology Department on Saturday, the policy will establish a common framework for how government institutions classify, share, access, store, retain and use the data they hold. Departments will be allowed to exchange data with one another without charge, while private entities will have to pay for access to datasets classified as “internal”.
The fees are intended to cover the government’s costs of collecting and maintaining the data. Access by private players will require approval from the apex-level data governance committee. Personal, confidential and restricted datasets will not be sold or shared under the proposed policy.
The framework is linked to the proposed state data exchange platform, which received administrative sanction in July 2025. The platform is intended to support the collection and sharing of data between government departments, with the Kerala State IT Mission coordinating the technical implementation.
The draft was prepared by KSITM after feedback was sought from government departments and the public. Under the proposed policy, every department must nominate a chief data officer, share the officer’s details with KSITM and establish a departmental data management cell. Departments must also prepare dataset inventory registers and identify categories of data that cannot be shared.
These “negative lists” must be prepared within six months. The state-level committee will review them before the apex committee gives final approval. The apex committee will also determine the platform’s financial framework and decide how long data can remain available online. KSITM has been asked to submit cost estimates for different data-retention periods.
The apex-level data governance committee will be chaired by the chief secretary, with the IT department secretary as convener. It will include senior officials from 10 departments, the KSITM director and the state informatics officer of the National Informatics Centre. An IT industry expert, an academic and a representative of a civil society organisation working on open data will participate as special invitees.
The state-level committee will be chaired by the IT department secretary, with the KSITM director as convener. Representatives of the finance and planning departments and the State Informatics Officer will also be members.
The policy will be finalised after the committees examine the modified draft. The department order also states that expenditure related to implementation will be incurred only after the required administrative and financial sanctions are obtained.
