New Delhi, Aug. 20 -- Every day, millions of citizens interact with governments at the Centre and in the states, and every interaction leaves behind a record.

Each time an anganwadi worker enters data into India's Poshan Tracker, a child is enrolled in a school, a patient visits a hospital, a tax is paid or a vehicle is registered, another piece is added to the vast and growing body of information generated through routine government functions. This is called 'administrative data.'

With artificial intelligence (AI) and other frontier technologies, we have an unprecedented chance to unlock greater value from disparate data-sets for better government policy formulation and service delivery.

Consider a district facing challenges in child ...