"A dataset is said to be open if anyone is free to use, reuse, and redistribute it - Open Data shall be machine readable and it should also be easily accessible." https://data.gov.in/sites/default/files/NDSAP_Implementation_Guidelines_2.2.pdf
Open or restricted access to datasets is decision of data owner or contributor. However, ICSSR Data Service subscribes to the open access policy. It would be our attempt to ensure that most of the datasets hosted in the repository are made available in open access without any restrictions.