The policy justifies the sale of vehicle and license data by claiming that it will “benefit the country’s economy” and “support the transport and automobile industry.”

Along similar lines, the Economic Survey noted, “To ensure that the socially optimum amount of data is harvested and used, the government needs to step in.”

One way for the government to step in, according to the Economic Survey, is by “providing the data itself.”

And the government indeed has stepped in and provided the data itself.