In line with the Government’s plan to use data to generate revenue, Minister of Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari has revealed that the government is selling vehicle registration and driving licence data of Indians and earning money from it.

Replying to a query presented by Congress MP Husain Dalwa, who asked if the government has intended to sell Vahan and Sarathi database in bulk (and) if so, the estimated value for the sale, Gadkari stated that it has provided 87 private and 32 government entities access to Vahan and Sarathi database which has yielded a revenue of Rs 65 crore so far.

The Vahan and Sarathi ministry maintains the Centralized National Registry through the National Informatics Centre and it contains approximately 25 crore vehicle registration records and 15 crore driving licence records.

For the same, the Road Transport and Highways Ministry has also created “Bulk Data Sharing Policy & Procedure”. Organizations seeking bulk data can obtain it at a price of Rs 3 crore Gadkari said. Educations institutes seeking the data can obtain it for “research purposes and internal use only” for a price of Rs 5 lakh.