The government on Thursday approved the National Data Sharing and Accessibility Policy (NDSAP-2012) to facilitate access to central government owned shareable data and information.

The decision was taken at a Cabinet meeting held in New Delhi under the chairmanship of Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh.

The data can be shared in both human readable and machine readable formats through a network across the country.

The NDSAP policy is designed to promote data sharing and enable access to central government owned data for national planning and development.

In another decision, the Union Cabinet also approved the guidelines for establishing Joint Venture Companies by Defence Public Sector Undertakings, DPSUs.

The guidelines will provide a streamlined, fair and transparent framework for entering into Joint Ventures with the ultimate objective of better risk-management, greater-efficiency and enhancing self-reliance in the defence sector as a whole.

It is expected that the guidelines will foster better and deeper partnerships between the DPSUs and private partners.

In another important decision, the Cabinet gave its ex-post facto approval for registering National Centre for Cold Chain Development NCCD as a society under the Societies Registration Act, 1860 with a one time grant of Rs 25 crore.

The NCCD will be having a Governing Council under the Chairmanship of Secretary with 22 members, covering government officials, Confederation of Indian Industry, Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry, FICCI and other stake holders.

AIR correspondent reports that India is the second largest producer of horticultural commodities in the world. However, a significant portion of the produce, particularly perishables like fruits, vegetables, flowers go waste due to post harvest losses. A robust cold chain infrastructure will go a long way in reducing the losses of perishables.