About

Why This Data?

This Data exists because a lot of effort in policy and programme work occurs before analysis even begins: figuring out which dataset to use, what an indicator actually means this year, whether two numbers can be compared at all, and how much confidence to place in a chart.

Rather than producing more dashboards or definitive answers, this site focuses on:

helping people find the right data
building judgement about how to interpret it
sharing practical heuristics for working under real-world constraints

Everything here is public, opinionated, and incomplete by design.

Who is it for?

This Data is for people who work with evidence in Indian policy and social sector contexts, including:

analysts and researchers
programme and project managers
consultants and advisors
journalists and writers
students learning to work with public data

If you have ever thought “the data exists, but I don’t know where to start” or “this chart feels wrong but I can’t quite explain why”, this site is meant for you.

Treat what you find here as a starting point for thinking and discussion, not as final answers.

Team

Hi, I am Gurjot. For the past decade, I have worked with social sector teams in India to find, make sense of, and use data to inform real decisions.

My work sits at the intersection of policy, data, and education, and is shaped by hands-on experience working within real institutional constraints: incomplete data, shifting definitions, limited time, multiple stakeholders, and decisions that still need to be made even when the evidence is messy.

I am less interested in data as an abstract object and more interested in what it does (or fails to do) once it enters reports, dashboards, meetings, and policy notes.