On 19th May, 2021, in response to an RTI query by us, the Ministry of Agriculture provided us a Memorandum of Understanding between the Department of Agriculture and Microsoft, and a document titled “Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for verifying Farmer’s Database (100 Villages)”. The MoU appears to propose that farmer’s data will be used to authenticate their identity for the receipt of entitlements under agricultural schemes. Further, the MoU speaks of a data sharing agreement, wherein the Agriculture Ministry will share farmers’ data with Microsoft. While the SOP contains guidelines for correcting gaps and errors in land records concerns on data protection, exclusion to entitlements and algorithmic governance emerge.
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://internetfreedom.in/revealed-ministry-of-agricultures-mou-with-microsoft-on-the-agristack-urgent-need-for-transparency-and-consultation/