New Delhi: A national workshop on urban data ecosystems, organised by NITI Aayog in Bhopal this week, has renewed questions about whether Jammu & Kashmir has the robust, credible datasets needed to support evidence-based policymaking—especially as India pushes toward its Viksit Bharat 2047 goals.
The two-day event, held in partnership with the World Bank and the Madhya Pradesh government, brought together over 100 officials and experts to discuss how cities can use integrated data systems to improve planning, job creation and service delivery. The highlight of the forum was the launch of the City Data and Analytics Platform (CDAP), a new micro-site of the National Data and Analytics Platform designed to give cities unified access to clean, high-quality datasets.
Senior officials, including Madhya Pradesh Chief Secretary Anurag Jain, said India’s expanding urban centres urgently need future-ready data systems, citing platforms such as PM Gati Shakti and ULIP as examples of how integrated datasets can transform decision-making.
However, the discussions also underscored a persistent challenge: wide variations across States in data quality, availability, and institutional capacity. Experts noted that while some States have built strong city-level data ecosystems, others—particularly newly reorganised regions like J&K—lack updated, reliable economic, demographic and service-delivery datasets. This limits their ability to fully participate in national platforms that rely on real-time, granular information.
Officials from participating States shared best practices, including the use of GIS layers, economic registers and AI-driven planning tools. World Bank experts stressed that consistent, high-quality data is now central to urban growth and investment decisions.
The workshop effectively raised a broader governance question: Can UTs like J&K design future-ready policies without modern data systems? As India moves toward data-driven governance, the gap between States with strong data foundations and those without may widen—impacting jobs, growth, urban planning and public services at the local level.
The forum concluded with a call for States and UTs to strengthen their institutional data frameworks so cities can effectively use platforms like CDAP and help drive India’s economic transformation.
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