Who drives data in data-driven governance? - The politics of data production in India's livelihood program.

The increased digitisation of government information systems, as well as emerging data analytics and visualization techniques, have led lately to a surge in interest in the role of data in governance and development. The latest buzzwords in governance now include data-driven governance, data-for-development, evidence-based policy-making, and open government data. However, not much attention has been paid to understand the process of the production of data in government information systems. Our findings are based on six months of an ethnographic study of India's livelihood program- Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) in a rural district of Karnataka. We argue that the practice of data production is carefully managed and controlled by local power elites providing an illusion of transparency in a digital information system. Understanding and recognizing the political nature of data production can help in better evaluation of development interventions, policy-making as well as in the design of more just information systems.