AI Governance Trajectory Research Dataset and Institutional Continuity Crosswalk

This dataset contains the compiled research data and researcher-generated coding underlying the study of AI governance readiness trajectories across Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal, and Bhutan during 2020–2025. The dataset includes extracted data from the Oxford Insights Government AI Readiness Index, the UN E-Government Development Index, World Bank World Development Indicators, and publicly available national AI strategy and policy documents. It also contains researcher-generated coding used in the analysis, including the Institutional Continuity Crosswalk (ICC) coding for Bangladesh and India and cross-sectional pillar-content coding for Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Nepal, and Bhutan. The repository contains two complementary workbooks. The main data-extraction workbook provides the compiled analytical dataset and source documentation. The Institutional Continuity Crosswalk workbook provides the ICC coding, Bangladesh UNESCO triangulation, column definitions, and methodological documentation. All underlying data are derived from publicly available secondary sources. Original third-party reports and documents are not redistributed; source references and URLs are provided within the workbooks where applicable. The original compilation, organization, coding, and derived variables are made available under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) license. Underlying third-party materials remain subject to their respective copyright and licensing terms.