Motivated by lessons learned from the devastating 2018 floods, the Government of Kerala’s (GoK) Rebuild Kerala Initiative (RKI) provides a design blueprint - embedding principles of sustainability, equity, inclusiveness, and effectiveness - for a new way of thinking about development in the State of Kerala. The GoK has invested significantly in data, recognizing it as a critical resource with the potential to help deliver more effective and efficient state services to residents and businesses. Improving the collection, sharing, and utilization of data constitutes a crucial component of the blueprint. Better data governance can make societies more resilient through helping governments and companies anticipate and reduce risk, improve disaster preparedness, respond more effectively to events, and recover from disasters more efficiently and equitably. A powerful example comes from Odisha, where strategic investments in data-driven warning, communication, and response tools following the 1999 cyclone in which almost 10,000 people died, led to a dramatic reduction in lives lost in a subsequent storm (fewer than 40 people) and a reduction in economic damage.1 Kerala itself offers another example – the quality and extent of its disease surveillance activities were an important factor in its successful response to the COVID-19 pandemic.