I alone cannot change the world, but I can cast a stone across the water to create many ripples.- Mother Teressa

These words of Mother Teressa resonate with many who believe that there is a big purpose of this life: for the betterment of fellow humans or the world at large, for that matter. Many such people in the world are working tirelessly to bring about a change and create an impact. People who want to accomplish things that give them a sense of pride when they look back at it. 

Dr. Inder Gopal is one such person who had been engaged in bringing about meaningful impact in people’s life using the best of his capabilities, education, expertise, and, most importantly, the right intention. Dr. Gopal is the CEO, India Urban Data Exchange since April 2020. Senior technology executive with operational, technical, and P&L responsibilities in established companies. He is a world-class technologist and researcher with an extensive list of publications, patents, and awards under his name. Among other accomplishments, he has developed the word’s first gigabit/second packet router in the early 1990s. 

He finds it incredibly satisfying to draw value out of ideas and technology and work beyond the restrictions of just researches and labs and see people actually getting benefitted from the results. Dr. Gopal believes that AI, ML, and data analytics have capabilities to reinvent city administration and achieve better operational efficiency. We need to promote data exchange between various civic bodies, municipal departments, application developers, and data consumers.

In an exclusive conversation with INDIAai’s Research & Content Lead, Jibu Elias, Dr. Inder Gopal talks about his professional journey and what excites him the most about his work.

Jibu Elias: With the world becoming more data and algorithm-driven, there is a need for more expertise in data. Your journey looks quite inspirational. Would you please share your inspiration and your journey so far.

Dr. Inder Gopal: What motivated me was the fact that I always wanted to execute and conceptualize products that would help people at large beyond the confines of research labs. I started my career as a researcher, I wanted to have more of an impact. This made me move from research to development in large companies and startups. Created a lot of products and services that people actually use, and this excited me. I wanted to move out of commercial setups and create something where I can bring technology to benefit people.

I started working with my friends and colleagues from IISc on ideas on creating value out of data generated from smart cities. That is when I began working with the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs in Delhi and researched the problem urban India was facing and how technology can impact and improve people’s lives. And this is how the IUDX project attracted me.

If we can accomplish even 1/10th of what I think we can potentially do, it would be an excellent contribution to the Indian ecosystem.

Jibu Elias: So true that technology alone doesn’t account for anything unless used by the right people for the right kind of jobs. So, Dr. Gopal, Can You Please explain what IUDX is all about?

Dr. Inder Gopal: IUDX (India Urban Data Exchange) is all about exchanging data and allowing people to exchange data. It is a pioneering program within the Indian Institute of Science, sponsored by India’s Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) and Ministry of Electronics and IT (MeitY), to enable the use of data for the public good. It allows all forms of non-personal data to be shared in a controlled and secure fashion, enabling data providers to create innovative services and generate value. It is created as a partnership between corporate, academic, and governmental bodies and is based on open-source code and open standards. Smart city mission is putting a lot of sensors and smart devices and is generating is a lot of data from almost 100 cities. However, the problem is that this data is not being used effectively. The reason being that data very often is in silos and is there with various departments who, in the first place, are unaware of the fact that how useful this data could be. Additionally, the data is not in standard formats, there are security issues associated, and most importantly, people do not know how and why to share this data and who is the authorized party to have this data.

To overcome this issue, I thought, let’s have a technology that will allow the sharing of this data. Unfortunately, however, the data generated from the cities is quite dispersed, scattered, and controlled by withheld by various departments.

So we created the concept of data exchange where departments have the ability to find the data, access it, and create new applications in line with creating beneficial products for people of these cities.

It allows all forms of non-personal data to be shared in a controlled and secure fashion, enabling data providers to create innovative services and generate value. It is created as a partnership between corporate, academic, and governmental bodies and is based on open-source code and open standards.

Jibu Elias: I often hear this quote “India is data rich but technologically poor.” How did you deal with this issue, and how did the process of data sharing occur at IUDX?

Dr. Inder Gopal: The key aspect here is standardization, and we are adopting international standards and partnering with bodies globally. We can call IUDX a middleware; it is a piece of software on the cloud. We are logically sitting in between the data sources and the applications. In terms of capabilities, we provide three capabilities, i.e. cataloging data (finding the right data), consent service (the legal and contractual framework for data sharing, payments, etc.), the actual movement of the data from the source to the recipient (setting up the connection, standardizing data as per the needed format). 

This enables flexibility and vendor independence which is otherwise a problem with smart cities nowadays that you get locked in with one vendor. This allows the ability to mix and match options and transforms the tendering process enabling cities to have better control over how to leverage data and how they can opt for the most suitable companies.

We are allowing startups to find out what data is available and access it, which lets them focus on what they are good at and hence improves the overall quality of the work.



Jibu Elias: How is IUDX taking care of privacy and security concerns in the process, being the platform in the middle of both parties?

Dr. Inder Gopal: So we are very conscious of privacy and security. IUDX is highly focused on non-personal data, and we do not store data. So we at IUDX, along with researchers at IISc, are creating algorithmic techniques around differential privacy to deal with any sort of privacy issues.

Jibu Elias: Dr. Gopal, with one year into the initiative, where do we stand in terms of deployment?

Dr. Inder Gopal: We have so far deployed the system in 10 cities. With citing ranging from small cities like Agartala to megacities like Bangalore or Chennai. We also need to exhibit use cases where people get to see is data being used and how it is beneficial.

For example, an interesting work that we are currently doing in Surat is that apart from the bus arrival timings, you also get to see how many people are on board that bus. This is fairly critical in these COVID-19 times and also improves the travel experience of senior citizens.

Another example of our work from Varanasi is around solid waste management. We are using the data around garbage pickup vehicles, their times, the size, and accessibility for those vehicles in specific areas. With this information, we plan to optimize the ways garbage is picked up, reducing costs by 20% for the whole operation of waste pickup and making the process eco-friendly too.

The third example of our work is in Pune on an application around women’s safety. This application doesn’t necessarily tell you the shortest way but the safest way, for that matter. This application tells you which roads on your route are empty or crowded and the streetlights are working on that route or not. This can also further inform you about the kind of crowd you might witness, crowd density, gender diversity using video analytics. Even an analysis of the kind of properties on your route can be communicated. This means you are informed about the route being unsafe if there are abandoned warehouses or safe if it is just a residential area.

Jibu Elias: With the first year being so successful and fascinating, what does year two hold for us to witness? What are the plans for IUDX in the coming years?

Dr. Inder Gopal: The plan for year two is to increase the footprint; we wish to reach 25 cities from the current 10 cities. The applications are still in a very early phase; we want the benefits to be evident and should reflect in the data with actual positive, quantifiable results.

The big challenge for IUDX is the culture of data sharing in India. We must encourage and incentivize data sharing for better results. 

Another challenge is the quality of data; most of the data we get is very poor and is not usable. If we have more users of that data, the quality might improve. This will create a community of people who generate, share and utilize data in a virtual data cycle.

Jibu Elias: The focus of our government and the smart city mission is to create a Citizen-Centric Governance system. Where does IUDX fit in the framework?

Dr. Inder Gopal: IUDX is an important enabler which is not enough by itself. It needs more government support in the form of more initiatives. We are witnessing quite a good response and willingness from various sectors under the smart cities mission.

This notion of data exchange is not restricted to the urban sector; however, it is much broader and can be replicated in sectors like education, agriculture, healthcare, finance, and others. 

We are looking for more ideas, feedback, and contribution from tech enthusiasts, programmers, or anybody interested in the idea of this data exchange is most welcome to write to us. 

Watch the full interview here

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