Breach of even encrypted data worries tech world

Madhapur: It is agitating to note that even encrypted data is also getting breached. It is a growing concern, noted Jayesh Ranjan, Principal Secretary (IT&C), while addressing data professionals at the inaugural session of India's first ever 'International Data Science Technology Conference for SDGs – Sustainable Development Goals.'

The conference attended by industry experts is organised jointly by Indo-Nordic Innovation Acceleration Clusters (INIAC) and DAV Data Solutions, India. It is organised as part of the week-long 'Indo Data Week.' Activities include conference, boot camp, hackathon and others.

"We are all excited by data science and its importance. But at the same time, we need to be more vigilant about data privacy and data protection," Ranjan said. He stressed that, "we cannot compromise on privacy. We have done a lot of work in the area of data science.

We were the first state in the country to craft a clear-cut policy. Though Sikkim was the first state, but compared to the size of that state, Telangana was the first large state in India to come out with the dedicated policy on matters related to data. The policy which was announced in 2016 was well appreciated."

The senior officials further said, "We have put some government data on the public platform. This open data is very rich in content. It has information on 150 plus companies and is the single source of ready reckoner on 250 relevant resources. It provides real-time wealth of information on agriculture, agri produces' prices, spatial data such as the information of market yards etc."

Ranjan informed several Indian and abroad delegates and data scientists that Telangana State declared the year 2020 as "Year of Artificial Intelligence" to promote its use in various sectors, including agriculture, urban transportation and healthcare.

This initiative is announced in partnership with IT industry body NASSCOM. "During this year we will put up Data Exchange set-up," he said, urging the organisers to reach out and engage government on useful practices of data in governments.

Anjali Viramani Paul, INIAC Advisor, Sweden said the goal of this conference was to get people collaborate on SDGs. Deepthi Ravuri, CEO of We Hub, said, "our end customers are women who want to become entrepreneurs. What we look forward to from this conference is Capacity and Leadership; Creating Tools & Data and Creating more research."

The participants include Data Science enthusiasts and professionals from around the globe to share ideas, inspire each other and build their professional network. Each speaker at IDW'19 in next two days will cover one of the 17 sustainable goals.

They will be sharing real-time use cases on how data and AI (Artificial Intelligence) are used to solve societal challenges and bring about community-based transformation.

An industry expo was organised in conjunction with the conference featuring MUST Foundation, Syndicate Impex, a startup that produces T-Shirts from discarded pet bottles. Mallabadi Creations, an eco art enterprise.