Blog: National Citizen Data Trust

Data Chasing AI — An Original Indian Proposition, Documented Since 2018

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Respected Shri Ashwini Vaishnaw ji,

I am writing to place before you a proposal that I believe deserves recognition not

merely as a timely idea, but as an original, India-first articulation — one I have

been developing and refining consistently since March 2018, well before AI

training data became a global flashpoint.

The proposal: a National Citizen Data Trust through which India's 140 crore

citizens voluntarily and knowingly deposit categories of their own personal data —

strictly anonymised and aggregated — which is then licensed to Indian AI

developers for a fee. It inverts today's model of "AI chasing data" (scraping,

litigation, contested consent) into "data chasing AI" — citizens as willing,

compensated co-owners of the AI economy rather than its raw material.

The urgency of this is underscored by a case unfolding right now: publishers and

novelist Scott Turow are suing Google over books allegedly used to train Gemini

without authorisation — even though the works were originally supplied only for

search and retail purposes. It is a preview of the legal exposure every AI industry

built on scrape-first data acquisition will eventually face, including, if we are not

deliberate, our own.

What I want to bring specifically to your attention is that this is not a reactive idea

assembled in response to that lawsuit or to today's Sovereign AI debate. It is

prior art, developed over a sustained, documented record:

Blog Title	URL	Publication Date	Policy Relevance
FW: REQUEST FOR RE-LOOK [RFR]	http://emailothers.blogspot.com/2018/07/fw-request-for-re-look-rfr.html	July 2018	India Data Custodian framework proposal
YOU HAVE A VALUABLE PROPOSITION	http://emailothers.blogspot.com/2018/05/you-have-valuable-proposition.html	May 2018	PrivacyForSale.com portal for data monetization
Data Monetization Enabling 500M Citizens	http://emailothers.blogspot.com/2019/03/	March 2019	SARAL enabling 500M citizens to earn from data
FW: YOUR VIEWS ON PRIVACY	http://emailothers.blogspot.com/2018/03/fw-your-views-on-privacy.html	March 2018	Privacy vs. livelihood trade-off analysis
FW: DATA PROTECTION BILL COMPROMISE	http://emailothers.blogspot.com/2019/01/fw-data-protection-bill-here-is-best.html	January 6, 2019	Data Custodian governance framework

Eight years of consistent, dated, public articulation — not an also-ran concept, but

arguably the earliest sustained case made anywhere for consent-first, citizen-

monetised data as national AI infrastructure.

I have now consolidated this entire line of thinking into a comprehensive white

paper,

"Data Chasing AI : Turning the Table on the Global AI Data Economy,"

- which sets out the full ten-tier data framework, the consent-and-anonymisation

architecture, the citizen data dividend model, and a phased implementation

roadmap — attached for your consideration.

I believe this can give India's Foundational AI companies a training-data

advantage over their US and Chinese counterparts, built on consent rather than

litigation, and at a fraction of the cost.

I would be honoured to discuss this further with you or with MeitY's empanelled AI

partner firms at your convenience.

With regards,

Hemen Parekh

Monday, 20 July 2026