Over the last ten years, working with Indian public data has come a long way. Problems of access are becoming a thing of the past, while the need for context has become greater than ever. After moving out of Indian newsrooms, I have with my team been working on building out Data For India, a public platform to advance the understanding of India, through data.
In this talk, I will first explain a little bit about our process behind asking questions, doing research and collating the data, as well as the communication including visualisation, with examples. I will then focus on the role of open data in our process and our work; this will include our thinking about the data we choose to use, the format we currently share it in, and our aim to play a larger role in the open data community. Lastly, I will share some key learnings about the state of Indian public data, and some thoughts, hopes and concerns about the way ahead. With the advancement of integrated tools to access Indian public data, including MCP servers, there is a great opportunity to further democratise access to data. Using some examples, I will talk about some of the transformative things that we have learned about the country through access to unit-level data. However, through a few examples, I will also highlight the challenges this brings with it, and the dangers of losing context.
Two themes will run through the talk:
One: moving away from false binaries, including those between tech/ data and social sciences research/ communication.
Two: pushing ourselves to expand our vision of what happens next.
If the ultimate aim of open data is for knowledge to advance and decision-making to get better - whether for governments, private companies or individuals - I will end the talk with some thoughts on what's needed to close this gap, technically, conceptually, pedagogically and democratically.
