The Sikkim Data Sharing and Accessibility Platform (SDSAP) portal and State Direct Benefit Transfer (SDBT) portal was launched by the Chief Minister Pawan Chamling here on Thursday in the presence of Principal Secretary-cum-Development Commissioner, VB Pathak and senior officials of Information Technology Department and Department of Economics & Statistics Monitoring & Evaluation.
It was informed that SDSAP and SDBT portal are information management system for quick and easy recording and dissemination of statistical events. It intends to disseminate authentic and timely official statistics and major socio-economic indicators in order to increase transparency in the functioning of the Government and also open avenues for many more innovative uses of Government Data.
The data sharing and accessibility platform will provide an opportunity not just to improve access to information but also to specify the new data sets and records to be collected and published. It can also help strengthen new data requirements and inform where policy updates or revisions are necessary.
The portals will also help improve and strengthen coordination among departments, to facilitate correct interpretation of data, collation of key statistical indicators under one platform, to increase transparency, accountability, administrative engagement and collaboration with respect to data and statistical outputs.
Data camp to be organized by IT Department twice a year to upload data in the portal. In the month of April-May, final data and data-sets of previous financial year will be uploaded by all departments in the SDSAP web based portal and in the month of September-October, the data of the ensuing financial will be uploaded.
The portals covers Official Statistics, Employee Statistics and Salary statistics, Sector Statistics including SDG indicators, Works Infrastructure Statistics, Statistics on Registered and Operational enterprises, Statistics on schemes and Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) of schemes.
The Principal Secretary-cum-Development Commissioner informed that the Government had recognized that in this age of information, there is a need to process, strengthen and improve the data infrastructure of the State. He added that since, there is no single platform wherein all the important statistics of the State and departments converge so the State Data Sharing and Accessibility Platform and State DBT portals were being developed.
The portals is intended to be used by all state government departments/PSUs and government functionaries to publish data/data sets of each and every department of the State Government. It is intended to be the State Data Repository.
“Apart from enhancing the digital policy initiative of the Government, the portals will also ensure creation of a permanent platform for convergence of important statistics and timely release of data/data sets,” he added.