Govt shared vehicle data with private companies-Gadkari

Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari told Parliament on Thursday that the Centre provided the private companies access to the databases of VAHAN and SARATHI, the government platform for composite vehicular data, and earned over Rs 100 crore. In a written reply in the Lok Sabha, Gadkari said, “The revenue collected by the government by providing access to VAHAN and SARATHI database is Rs 1,11,38,79,757.”The data have been shared with the home ministry, law enforcement agencies, and insurance, auto, and freight companies.

Companies that got access to the two- two databases comprised Mercedes Benz, BMW, Bajaj Allianz General Insurance, Axis Bank, and L&T Financial Services among others.The transport ministry has scrapped the bulk data sharing policy issued in 2019 which enabled it to share the VAHAN and SARATHI databases that include particulars of driving licenses and registered vehicles in the country. The ministry had in June 2020 discarded the old policy, citing possible misuse of personal data and privacy concerns.Further responding to another question whether the government would propose to demand the deletion of such data collated by private players, Gadkari answered that "no such proposal was under consideration,"