In pursuance of the recommendations of the National Water Policy (2012)
for placing all hydrological data, other than those classified on
national security consideration, in public domain, Ministry of Water
Resources (MoWR) had formulated a draft Hydro-meteorological Data
Dissemination Policy, which was released for comments on 7th March,
2013. It was also circulated amongst related Ministries/Departments.
Based on the comments received, the Hydro-meteorological Data
Dissemination Policy (2013) has been modified and finalized. The Hydro-meteorological Data Dissemination Policy (2013) provides for hosting of all unclassified data (after validation and to the extent published in Water Year Book, Water Quality Year Book, Water Sediment Year Book, Ground Water Year Book) on IndiaWRIS (web based Water Resources Information System) website, which can be downloaded by any web-registered user free of cost.
The hydrological data of Indus basin & other rivers and their tributaries discharging into Pakistan and Ganga-Brahmaputra-Meghna basin & other rivers and their tributaries discharging into Bangladesh/Mynmar have been categorized as classified data. A Classified Data Release Committee is proposed to be set up to examine all requests for release of classified data.
The Hydro-meteorological Data Dissemination Policy (2013) is available on the Ministry of Water Resources’ website http://www.wrmin.nic.in
It is expected that implementation of this policy would result into open access of all unclassified data and streamlining of the process of obtaining classified data.
