In a digital age marked by exponential data growth, harnessing the power of information is paramount, especially in the realm of education. The Government of India's visionary initiative, One Nation One Data (ONOD), emerges as a beacon of transformation, aiming to revolutionize data management in Higher Education Institutes (HEIs) across the country. This comprehensive blog elucidates the objectives, purpose, and policy framework of ONOD, while delving into its utilization of the AISHE Code, along with the requirements and benefits it offers for HEIs concerning accreditation bodies like NAAC, NBA, AICTE, and NIRF. Objective of One Nation One Data * At its core, ONOD endeavors to establish a unified and standardized data ecosystem for HEIs in India. Its primary objectives include:

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  Ensure uniformity in data formats, structures, and definitions across all HEIs, promoting consistency and compatibility in data exchange.
• Integration:
  Integrate disparate data silos within HEIs to create a seamless flow of information, enhancing operational efficiency and decision-making.
• Accessibility:
  Facilitate easy access to reliable and up-to-date educational data for stakeholders, fostering transparency and accountability.
• Interoperability:
  Enable interoperability between different data systems and platforms, allowing for efficient data sharing and utilization across the education landscape. Purpose of One Nation One Data
  The overarching purpose of ONOD is to catalyze positive transformations in the higher education sector by leveraging the power of data. Its key purposes include:
• Enhanced Governance:
  Empower policymakers and regulatory bodies with timely and accurate data insights for evidence-based decision-making and policy formulation.
• Quality Assurance:
  Strengthen mechanisms for monitoring and evaluating the quality of education delivery and infrastructure across HEIs, promoting excellence and accountability.
• Institutional Improvement:
  Provide HEIs with actionable data insights to identify areas for improvement, optimize resource allocation, and enhance overall institutional effectiveness.
• Global Competitiveness:
  Elevate the global competitiveness of Indian HEIs by facilitating benchmarking against international standards and best practices.
• Policy Framework of One Nation One Data:
  The implementation of ONOD is guided by a robust policy framework that outlines the roles, responsibilities, and mechanisms for its execution. Key components of the policy framework include:
• AISHE Code Integration:
  Mandate the integration of the All-India Survey on Higher Education (AISHE) Code as a unique identifier for all HEIs, ensuring standardization and interoperability of data.
• Data Security and Privacy:
  Establish stringent protocols and safeguards to protect the confidentiality and integrity of educational data, adhering to national and international data security standards.
• Capacity Building:
  Invest in capacity building initiatives to equip HEIs, administrators, and stakeholders with the necessary skills and resources to effectively utilize data for decision-making and innovation.
• Stakeholder Engagement:
  Foster collaboration and partnership between government agencies, HEIs, industry stakeholders, and civil society organizations to ensure the success and sustainability of ONOD.
• Utilization of AISHE Code:
  The AISHE Code serves as the linchpin of ONOD, providing a unique identifier for each HEI in India. By integrating the AISHE Code into the data infrastructure, ONOD ensures seamless data exchange and interoperability between HEIs and regulatory bodies. This standardized approach not only simplifies data management but also enhances the accuracy and reliability of educational data, empowering stakeholders with valuable insights for informed decision-making.
• Requirements and Benefits for Higher Education Institutes:
  For HEIs, embracing ONOD entails compliance with certain requirements and entails numerous benefits, particularly concerning accreditation bodies like NAAC, NBA, AICTE, and NIRF:
• Requirements: Data Digitization:
  HEIs must digitize their educational records, including student information, faculty details, academic programs, and infrastructure data, to ensure compatibility with ONOD standards.
• Integration with AISHE:
  HEIs are required to integrate their data systems with the AISHE platform, enabling seamless data exchange and real-time updates to the national education database.
• Compliance with Standards:
  HEIs must adhere to prescribed data standards and protocols set forth by ONOD to ensure data accuracy, consistency, and integrity.
Benefits:

• Compliance with Standards:
  ONOD facilitates the streamlining of accreditation processes by providing accreditation bodies like NAAC and NBA with standardized and comprehensive data, enabling more efficient evaluations and assessments.
• Data-driven Decision-making:
  HEIs can leverage the wealth of educational data available through ONOD to make data-driven decisions regarding resource allocation, curriculum development, and institutional planning.
• Enhanced Transparency and Accountability:
  ONOD promotes transparency and accountability in higher education by providing stakeholders with access to reliable and up-to-date data on institutional performance, thereby fostering trust and confidence.
• Facilitated Benchmarking:
  HEIs can benchmark their performance against national and international standards using data provided by ONOD, enabling them to identify areas for improvement and best practices.
• Conclusion:
  In conclusion, One Nation One Data stands as a transformative initiative poised to reshape the landscape of higher education in India. By standardizing data management practices, enhancing accessibility and interoperability, and fostering a culture of data-driven decision-making, ONOD holds the promise of unlocking new opportunities for excellence and innovation in the Indian higher education sector. As HEIs embrace this paradigm shift towards data-centric governance, the future of education in India shines brighter than ever before.READ MORE

This year, I will have two books out, a companion title to my picture book, Out of the Way! Out of the Way! (Groundwood Books, 2012) and a sequel to my chapter book/early middle grade, Book Uncle and Me (Groundwood Books, 2016). Truth be told, I hadn’t planned to write either of them. People often want to know where writers get ideas from. Ideas are cheap, I always want to say. Get an energetic brainstorm going in a roomful of, say, ten people, and you might come up with fifty great ideas. The trick is to recognize the ones that have staying power. I too am dazzled frequently by many sparkling ideas. But I have to ask myself, which of them can I stand to live with for the time that it will take me to write it out? More, to write it so that it makes sense to anyone other than me. Which of them do I really want to engage with beyond its shiny surface?
The idea for a companion book to Out of the Way! Out of the Way! was a slow simmer rather than a sudden blazing star. The first book had done steadily well. It gathered some very nice accolades over nearly ten years. I’d been thinking for a while of a parallel story. Instead of a boy and a road and a tree, this one would involve a girl—and water. I wrote a rather threadbare draft with the uninspiring title of “Clean it Up! Clean it Up!” It didn’t work. Even I could see that. A few revisions into the process, that title fell off and the book became Look! Look! (Groundwood Books, 2024) That one change woke the story up. The energy of the text gathered itself, sounding notes of wonder and discovery. It’s exciting when a tiny shift in words has that effect.
Uma Krishnaswamy’s beautiful pictures (no, she’s not me!) affected my text as well, in the best way. Here’s a blog post I wrote about how the early images helped me rethink and rearrange my text while reworking several transitions. It’s true. Every book teaches me how to write it. The next one must take me on its own entirely different journey.
I owe the idea for Birds on the Brain (Groundwood Books, 2024) to a child who asked a question at the end of a virtual reading and Q & A about Book Uncle and Me. She said, “Is there going to be a second book?” I said something like,
“I don’t know—should there be?” Because really, that thought had not occurred to me. I’d been feeling done with these characters and this setting. In short order, the idea was rousingly voted on and approved and I thought, Well, okay, we’ll see. I will confess that when ideas come scratching at my mental windowpanes, my first instinct is usually to send them packing until they have returned with enough persuasive force to prove themselves.

• What do I know? That vote of confidence from a North Vancouver Grade 3 class planted itself in my brain and began demanding its own time. I started writing notes about it. I wrote a couple of draft chapters. I never outline until I am halfway through a novel but I found myself creating an outline for this story. Lo and behold, the title burst forth and the character, Reeni, stepped up and took charge.
• Then a real-life experience landed right at my fingertips. I was in India for part of the time that I was writing my first draft. I always look for birds wherever I travel but this time I began to pay attention in a different way. I tried to think myself into the mind of Reeni, who is wild about all things with beaks and wings. I downloaded the wonderful eBird app on my cell phone and began to track bird sightings.
• Those birds! They showed up on walls, in niches on the sides of buildings, in the branches of trees, and winging through the sky. They appeared as if they were auditioning for roles in my story. Pigeons, crows, koels, rose-ringed parakeets, kingfishers, yellow-billed babblers, cormorants, egrets, kites. I never did see Reeni’s favorite little iridescent sunbird, but I saw plenty of beaked-and-winged wonders. Volunteers from eBird emailed me about some of my sightings—was that really a drongo? More likely a rufous treepie. And that swallow-like bird? Probably an Asian palm swift. My mother, who at 94 can look up anything on YouTube, found me some very endearing Tamil names for several common birds. I gave them to the istri lady, my opinionated secondary character. They became part of a scene in the book.
• I even received this certificate from the State of India’s Birds Partnership. Really, it belongs to Reeni. If there’s one thing I’ve learned from thirty years of doing this work, it is that I rarely know where I can go with an idea, even one that I have committed myself to pursuing. Both these books only began to take shape when I stopped trying to control the outcome. When you loosen the borders between life and fiction, when you let the story carry you along—that’s when you enter a magical writing space. You can’t create it. You just have to keep showing up, keep scanning what you have over and over, as if you were searching the ground for hidden rocks or the sky for birds.READ MORE