New Delhi [India], April 27 (ANI): The Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) will convene a national deliberative summit on 'Harmonizing Administrative Data for Governance' on April 29-30 in Bhubaneswar, aimed at building consensus on an action plan to make administrative data interoperable and ready for policy use.

According to an official release by the ministry, the one-and-a-half-day summit will bring together States, Union Territories, central ministries and other stakeholders to discuss timelines and strategies for harmonizing administrative datasets for governance and decision-making.

The ministry said the summit follows the 5th National Conference of Chief Secretaries held in December 2025 and is focused on repurposing administrative data for policy decisions and service delivery, with an emphasis on real-time, evidence-based governance.

A national consultative workshop was held on February 24 in New Delhi as a precursor, where states and UTs were asked to conduct internal consultations. These workshops, held during March and April 2026, aimed to map existing data systems, assess readiness for interoperability and identify key datasets for immediate use cases, the release said.

Based on feedback from these consultations, a deliberation note focusing on data harmonization and ecosystem development has been prepared for discussion at the summit.

MoSPI said several foundational elements for a harmonized data architecture are already in place, including policy frameworks for data sharing, metadata standards, classification systems, unique identifiers and data quality assessment frameworks.

The summit will deliberate on creating an enabling institutional ecosystem to scale up harmonized datasets and automate data processes from generation to sharing, to make datasets available and data exchange platforms.

It added that the roadmap will align with global best practices and focus on transitioning towards unified and AI-ready data systems, while encouraging central ministries to demonstrate high-impact use cases using administrative data.

The discussions will include participation from government officials, experts from international agencies, think tanks and academia, with presentations by State and UT representatives on preparedness and challenges.

The inaugural session will be attended by the Minister of State (Independent Charge) for MoSPI and the Deputy Chief Minister of Odisha, the release added. (ANI)