Open Data Week: The Open Data Week was launched by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) to encourage the adoption of open data and promote innovation across India’s urban ecosystem.

Key Highlights:

• The week will be conducted between January 17, 2022 and January 21, 2022.
• The Event will see participation from all 100 Smart Cities that will be publishing high quality datasets and data blogs on the Smart Cities Open Data Portal.
• The Open Data Week is a part of the series of initiatives being undertaken by MoHUA to promote awareness and use of open data ahead of the ‘Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav - Smart Cities: Smart Urbanization’ conference, which is scheduled to be held in Surat in February 2022.

About Open Data Week:

• The Data Day will be held across all smart cities.
• It will include talks, seminars, hackathons, demonstrations, and training on various data tracks identified by the cities.
• MoHUA will publish high quality blogs and data sets about smart cities in an open data portal.
• Currently, over 3,800 datasets and over 60 data stories are available on the Portal for various stakeholders to analyze and uncover actionable insights. 
• People from various backgrounds will participate in the Day, including scientific and academic institutions, businesses, start-ups, civil society, government agencies, private sector enterprises, and so on.

Aim: 

• The event has been designed with an aim to promote the use of data and raise awareness about it.
• It will create new combinations of data leading to new insights and knowledge.
• The event aims to show the benefits of open data such as increased efficiency, transparency, a spur in innovation, and economic growth.

Objective:

• The main objective is creating a platform that will provide ample opportunities on how to continue creating and promoting the use of data that addresses complex urban issues, such as the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic

Benefits:

• Many different groups of people and organisations can benefit from the availability of quality data.
• The new combination of data will create new knowledge and insights,which can lead to whole new fields of application.
• It will also lead to whole new field of application and can help governments in solving some of the most common problems faced by the people.

About Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav:

• Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav is an initiative of the Government of India (GoI) to celebrate 75 years of India's Independence.
• This initiative by GoI is to celebrate and commemorate 75 years of progressive India and the glorious history of its people, culture and achievements.
• It represents everything progressive about India’s socio-cultural, political, and economic identities.
• It is dedicated to the people, who have not only  been instrumental in bringing India this far in its evolutionary journey but also have the power and potential to realize Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision of activating India 2.0, fuelled by the spirit of Atmanirbhar Bharat.
• The official journey of “Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav” began on March 12, 2021.
• It will end a year later on August 15, 2022.