India Coronavirus Dispatch: Data-sharing concerns abound in Covid war room

 One of the dilemmas facing the Union Health ministry during the initial days of the pandemic was whether the government’s response to the health crisis should go through the loops of bureaucracy or should it cast aside established procedures and norms in favour of working with select private players and giving them access to data. Documents obtained through the RTI act show that the Health Ministry made the choice to take the latter route. The ministry got 7 private players on board without following the standard procedure of inviting expressions of interest. These companies were picked from among several organisations that contacted the ministry and volunteered to help. A note from an under-secretary reads that the seven companies were required to help with “latest tools and technologies for analytics, visualisation, forecasting methodology and documentation”. A major concern here is that the Covid war room has access to data that would be useful for companies looking to expand business into the healthcare sector. Read More