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Why My SocialCops Interview Was One of a Kind
What are the things that come to our minds when we think of interviews? They’re scary and they’re hard, but with the right technique and amount of preparation, they can be conquered. However, my in-office SocialCops interview convinced me that interviews can throw you off your game and reveal who…
Is India Aging Like Japan? Visualizing Population Pyramids
This blog is Part 2 in our series on population dynamics. Check out Part 1 on visualizing aging population here. In this blog, we take a closer look at how India and Japan are aging, and uncover an astonishing trend through population pyramid visualizations. There has been a lot of…
Building a Solid Development Workflow Using Docker and Compose
At SocialCops, we use a microservices-based architecture for our platform. In a system like this, where there are many interdependent applications running as services on the cloud, you need some way for them to find one another. Traditionally, you would run multiple services on various servers and have them communicate…
Indian Management: From Big Data to Better Decisions
“It is all too easy to get caught up in the buzz around big data; yet data means nothing if it does not lead to insights and better decisions. That is why we at SocialCops have found that data intelligence is so important — it shifts the conversation from what…
The World’s Aging Population Crisis: Visualizing Demographic Transition
This blog is Part 1 in our series on population dynamics. In this blog, we look at the world’s aging population using a fun visualization and the factors that lead up to aging population. (All finished? Check out Part 2 here.) 33% of Japan’s population is over 60 years of…
7 Common Myths About Working With the Indian Government
Ministry. Secretariat. Collectorate. Panchayat Samiti. Sir. Madam. Sir. Madam. Meeting. Field Visit. Presentation. New Delhi. Nagpur. Noamundi. These are the words around which my life revolves currently. At SocialCops, we work on a large number of projects with the government. Typically, our data platform helps some of the most important…
Livemint: Using data for better governance
“Data-driven governance is being touted globally as a new approach to governance, one where data is used to drive policy decisions, set goals, measure performance, and increase government transparency.” – Livemint We’re excited to be featured in Livemint’s article about how data-driven governance can help drive better policy decisions, set…
How SocialCops Keeps Me Motivated — Monday to Friday
Seven months ago, I was a data scientist at a big-data analytics firm. In my nine-month stint there, I was introduced to big data and the tremendous decision-making capabilities that it brings to organizations, both governments and corporations. I was convinced that data-driven decision-making is the need of the hour…
How We Built Collect Using the MVP Pattern (Model-View-Presenter)
Building Android applications is fun and challenging. We at SocialCops built Collect — a mobile-based data collection tool, currently being used by nearly 150 organizations around the world. The ever-increasing number of users, encouraging as it is, made it difficult to scale up Collect with the existing code structure. That was when…
Can Participatory Budgeting Work in India?
As four states go to the polls this year, millions of Indians will cast their votes and participate in the most fundamental aspect of democracy. But, for many of them, this will be their only taste of democracy this year. After votes are counted, the elected officials will be left…
What Infrastructure Demos Taught Me About Telling a Complex Story
One Friday in late January, I was in the middle of what I thought was a normal Friday demo at SocialCops. With the Growth, Data, and Business teams out of the way, it was time for the engineers to take the stage. First up was Chetan Bhasin, who works in Infrastructure at SocialCops.…
Engineer Differently: My Experience as an Engineer at SocialCops
The central question of any startup is not how to attract talent, but how to get the best performance out of that talent. This is crucial — every day at a startup brings new challenges with limited time to respond. Coping with these challenges while building products to impact a…
Why the Ministry of Earth Sciences’ RTI Response Stands Out
At SocialCops, we have filed hundreds of Right to Information (RTI) requests with the national and state governments. The Ministry of Earth Sciences’ response to our RTI request stood out from the stack of responses we receive. Here’s why. Of our most recent 50 RTI responses, 34 notified us that our…
Railway Budget 2016: Putting the Railway Back on Track
In February, the Ministry of Railways announced the Railway Budget 2016-17. This continued a 95-year-old tradition where, like an aperitif before the main course, the budget for the Indian Railways is always announced before the Union Budget. An entire day in Parliament dedicated to railway finance is no quirky British…
Working with Polyglot Microservices at SocialCops
SocialCops, when it was first started over two years ago, stood at a place very different from where it is today. At the beginning, SocialCops was mainly focused on building a mobile application for collecting data. Now we’re working on a powerful platform — with services for data collection, accessing…
The 270,836 Women Missing From the Indian Railways
Less than 6.7% of the Indian Railways’ employees are female. These missing women pose a major challenge to the company’s message of progress. The Indian Railways is bounding forward with modern advancements. It plans to use Twitter to issue customer complaints, an app for booking paperless tickets, handheld terminals for ticket examiners, a Google…
Mumbai Local Trains: Transporting 7 Million People Per Day
“And at the moment of contact, they do not know if the hand that is reaching for theirs belongs to a Hindu or Muslim or Christian or Brahmin or untouchable or whether you were born in this city or arrived only this morning or whether you live in Malabar Hill…
How Sustainable and Successful Is the Delhi Metro?
The Delhi Metro started with one line running between Shahdara and Tis Hazari. Today it stands as one of the most lucrative metro systems in India, aspiring to 12 lines covering 230 km and 160 stations. This is nothing short of commendable. However, one must wonder — what does it…
The Unexpected Growth of Farmer Suicides in Karnataka
We know from a quick glance at this map that the issue of farmer suicide in Karnataka is widespread and current. With some geographical knowledge, we also know the situation is worse in Mandya, Haveri, Tumakuru, and Mysuru. However, we are left with more unknown than known, and more questions than…
A Closer Look at the Scourge of Stillbirths in India
Every day in the 40 weeks that a mother bears a baby in her womb is a lifetime. A mother’s body goes through numerous psychological, emotional, and physical changes while she is raising a life within her. To imagine that approximately 2,000 expecting mothers’ hopes are shattered each day because…
Drunk Driving Statistics: A Case of Missing Data
While the debate rages around the travesty of justice in the Salman Khan hit and run case, the prolonged case has put a spotlight on the menace of drunk driving. Earlier in 2015, a Supreme Court Committee issued guidelines recommending jail term for drunk driving offenders. Also, with the 2015…
Can Technology Make Government Subsidies More Effective?
A boy goes to the ration store to buy dal and rice. A small farmer sprays fertilizers on his crop. A mother fills her water jug at the community tap. A family purchases kerosene to light their house. For India’s poor, government subsidies are crucial to maintaining a certain minimum…
2015: What a Year It’s Been!
Don’t have the time to read the full blog? Check out our deck instead! Top 10 Highlights of 2015 – SocialCops from SocialCops On the first Monday of 2016, we started our year with a Team Townhall to reflect on the previous year and plan for what is coming next.…
A Day in the Life of a Graphic Designer at SocialCops
According to tradition, I am supposed to write an article on a day in the life of a graphic designer at SocialCops. However, being a designer at SocialCops is better defined as a lifestyle than by a single day’s work. So I must start at the beginning — scratch that,…
Driven by Data: The New Force in the Automotive Industry
The automotive industry has long been seen as a laggard in terms of technological progress. Compliance with safety regulations and the capital intensive nature of R&D and production means that innovation cannot be as rapid as in the IT industry, for instance. However, the changes that make it through are…
Why Realm?
Realm is a mobile database framework for iOS and Android. It is designed as a replacement for SQLITE and Core Data. I stumbled upon the Realm database while looking for a better database for Collect, our mobile-based data collection tool. It has a complex database structure for saving and retrieving of…
AIDS and HIV in India: What the Data Says
HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus) and AIDS (Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome) have had the misfortune of being associated with more stigma than they deserve. This very impenetrable wall of myth and stigma around the disease has made treating the condition and curbing its spread an exhausting challenge for the world organizations and…
Giving Thanks for My Job — A Non-Traditional Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving has always been a wonderful, albeit somewhat predictable activity for me — I meet my family, tease my little sisters, eat great food until I hurt, and talk about what I’m thankful for. Once I check all the boxes, I can collapse into a food coma. Thankfulness has always…
A Step-by-Step Guide to the 2011 Census: Its Successes, Failures and Questions
This post is the third post in our Decoding Open Data series. It provides context around the Census – how it was created, how it is conducted, and how it has developed over time. Read the previous posts here: We Bet You Don’t Know Why the Indian Census Was Created, Why Did…
5 Best Practices for NGOs to Ace Funding Grant Proposals
When thinking about data in the development space, images of field workers talking to their stakeholders — farmers, nursing mothers, and community meetings — and collecting authentic data through tablets, smart phones, or pen and paper come to mind. However, for many NGOs, data collection is often quite different. Many…
A Day in the Life of a SocialCops Data Analyst
I did not have a traditional college experience. While studying at Grinnell College, I spent a year living in Pune, Delhi and Mumbai, where I completed two internships, learned Hindi, traveled the country, and studied Economics at St. Stephen’s College. This year inspired me to leave my home in Kentucky…
6 Data Sets Needed for a Strong Road Safety Act
Road safety in India is a matter of great concern, given that a person dies every 4 minutes on our roads. In 2015, the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) put road accident numbers at over 4,50,000, resulting in 1,41,526 deaths and 4,77,731 injuries. With the government’s proposed Road Transport and…
The Most Colorful and Complex Map of U.S. Election Results
They say a picture is worth a thousand words. If that’s the case, then a data visualization is worth a million words. Or data points. This map showing the 1860 election results of the U.S. has been drawn and redrawn numerous times over the years, but it does more than…
6 Technological Interventions to Rid India of Corruption
India holds the dubious distinction of ranking 85th among 175 nations surveyed for corruption. The socio-economic price of corruption is very high. So, as India takes its place on the world economic stage, corruption needs to be tackled seriously. On the one hand, the attitude of accepting bribery needs to…
Financial Inclusion: The Last Mile
Gunji, in Uttarkhand – a northern state of India, nestled among the Himalayan Mountains – is a place of spectacular beauty and an equally treacherous terrain. Reaching this idyllic spot located at least 45 km away from a motorable road takes 4 days of challenging trek along the ferocious Kali…
The Indian Railway Budget: Looking Beyond Fare Hikes and New Trains
The Indian Railway is India’s largest employer and among the top ten employers in the world. It has differing meanings in the lives of Indians. For 25 million people, it is the mode of transport to take them to work and home. For industries that make up 1 million tonne…
Launch: Partnering With Deepika Padukone’s Foundation for Mental Health
This year, on World Mental Health Day, we are happy to announce an exciting partnership with The Live Love Laugh Foundation, the non-profit started by Deepika Padukone to champion the cause of mental health in India. Mental health is an issue that is silently plaguing India at a massive scale. Disorders…
4 Important Infographics on Mental Health
Today is the World Mental Health Day, a day dedicated to raising awareness of mental health issues around the world. Here are 4 striking infographics that will help raise awareness about this issue, which is a leading cause of stigma and suicides in India. 1. India is the most depressed…
SocialCops Visits Silicon Valley
We’re excited to announce that we were one of 35 startups selected for the first India-U.S. Startup Konnect, which showcases the most innovative Indian startups across different sectors. Our co-founder Varun Banka took a trip out to Silicon Valley to present our work to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and leading entrepreneurs. .@Social_Cops…
Why Design Matters: Designing a Data Platform to Solve Problems That Matter
At SocialCops, we’re building a data platform to solve the biggest problems facing humanity. In the short three years of our existence, our data platform has been used to drive healthcare policy, optimize disaster relief operations, and solve urban planning issues. We were founded to solve developing world problems. This means our…
TGIF: What SocialCops Does on Fridays
Friday Demos are the one time in the week that the SocialCops team stops executing and sits back to have some fun. On Friday at 6 pm sharp, we put our laptops away and focus our attention on the projector screen that makes its way down for its two hours of…
Goonj: Using Data to Manage Logistics for Development
Logistics in the Social Sector Industrial supply chain and logistics management solutions are a major application area of data-driven systems, and can be seen as a precursor to the big data revolution. However, you would be surprised how managing logistics in the social sector is an entirely different ball game…
Why Did It Take 4 Years to Prepare for the 2011 Census of India?
This is the second post in our Decoding Open Data series. It provides context around the Census – how it was created, how it is conducted, and how it has developed over time. Read the other posts here: We Bet You Don’t Know Why the Indian Census Was Created, Why Did…
My First Week as a Resident Entrepreneur at SocialCops
My name is Richa and I recently joined the SocialCops team in a “Resident Entrepreneur” role. Seriously. I was told to create my own title when I joined, and so I did. Having worked as an associate at a consulting firm for two years conducting primary research and randomised controlled…
We Bet You Don’t Know Why the Indian Census Was Created
This post is the first post in our Decoding Open Data series. It provides context around the Census – how it was created, how it is conducted, and how it has developed over time. Read the other posts here: We Bet You Don’t Know Why the Indian Census Was Created, Why…
Expecting the Unexpected: My First Week in Business Development at SocialCops
Given my experience the last time I interned, it was no surprise I decided to come back to SocialCops. Unlike the first-day jitters when I entered in March 2014, I thought I knew the drill this time around. After all, there’s only so much a place can change in a…
What Does DLHS Show About India’s Health Data?
During an event, the founder of an NGO working with migrant labourers was asked how her approach to care had evolved over the years. In reply, she described how she used to give away high-quality personal care products without realising that they were not impacting the beneficiaries’ quality of life…
7 Scenarios of Data Use in the Development Sector
Who does data matter to in the development space, and how do those people use data? Though organizations and funders vary greatly, data can play a role in the decisions of all key actors in development funding and organizations. Data in Development Funding Funders keep the money flowing and programs running,…
Himsagar Fellowship Travelogue: Six States. Five Months. Solo Travel.
I remember sitting on what was then my first train journey on the Fellowship – the Mumbai-Delhi Rajdhani on the 4th of January 2015. Winter in Mumbai was at one extreme in comparison to the one that awaited me in Delhi. Anything below 20 degrees Celsius was unnatural for an inhabitant…
National Family Health Surveys: The Backbone of Health Policies
India has been trying to tackle the problem of population through improved use of family planning methods since before the Emergency rattled the political system. Family planning and contraception methods attack the very root of beliefs of several major sections of the Indian society, and hence the issue of population…
Android Analytics to Enrich Data Collection On Field: My Hack Week at SocialCops
My name is Tanay. I’m a third year computer science major in Manipal University and, after three rounds of interviews, I joined SocialCops as a summer intern. You join SocialCops with people expecting a lot from you. Varun Banka, our co-founder told me on day 1 that you’ll be working…
Going Big on Data in the Public Health Space
Public Health: Current Situation and Opportunities India spends $252 million every year on tuberculosis control and management. But 278,000 lives are lost each year despite the onerous efforts to curb the disease. Where do the doctors fail? What do the DOTS clinics do wrong? Or is it only because people do…
Mapping Granular Household-Level Data for a Small Village in Odisha
Tata Trusts wanted to be able to visualise granular household level data for a small village in Orissa, in an intuitive, lifelike manner that could help identify various issues and their patterns in occurrence. We built them a map with custom shape files of the houses that represented the data…
Our Second Anniversary: Introducing SocialCops.com
June 19th marks an important date in the history of SocialCops – our anniversary. On June 19th, 2013, Varun and I arrived in Delhi to kickstart a few pilots aimed at driving better decisions in governance through better data collection. Through the course of the next year, we piloted one of…
Using Mobile Technology to Optimize Disaster Relief Efforts
Summary The Nepal earthquake in April-May, 2015 was one of the worst natural disasters to have hit the region in over 8 decades: tens of thousands of people were killed, and a lot more injured. Goonj – India’s leading disaster relief organisation – needed to ensure that their resources were…
How Five University Students Deployed 2.15 Crores By Mapping Broken Streetlights In Ranchi
The Problem The small city of Ranchi was known for poor street lighting since time anyone remembered – a basic problem that led most people to pull out their smartphones from their pockets post 7 p.m. and not think twice about it. Broken streetlights caused much bigger problems in the…
Boosting Public Worker Morale and Performance Using Cleanliness Data
The Problem In India, “Safai Karamcharis” refer to the group of public workers responsible for street sweeping and garbage picking. The public worker system in India lacks an incredibly important component – incentives for good performance. People tend to perform better when recognized for their good performance. While this is…
From Traditional Marketing to Digital Marketing in a Startup: My Learnings
Life is quite different 35,000 kilometers away from where I was just 10 months ago. I think the competitive environment in University instills the idea of a perfect job awaiting you as you step out into the world. But the truth is far from that. I stumbled upon my first…
Work and Travel, Learn and Touch Lives: A Month in the Life of a Himsagar Fellow
Yes, I’ve spent the last four months traveling to Bihar, West Bengal, Chhattisgarh and Odisha meeting over a hundred NGOs working across a myriad of issues. And yes, I’ve been doing all of it on my own. Quick rewind: I chanced upon the Himsagar Fellowship some months ago when I…
The Indian Express: Training Program Begins for Micro-Planning Survey
“Development of villages on all fronts is in the hands of the people of respective villages and now there is golden chance to do it, said JM Paresh, an official of Tata Trust… SocialCops co-founder Prukalpa Sankar… explained various technical aspects of enumerating the data.” – The Indian Express SocialCops…
Youth Ki Awaaz: Want To Know The Status Of Education In Your District? Here’s A Cool Map To Help
“In the map, every district has been scored out of an average score of 10. As one navigates across the map, information regarding the infrastructure, the learning conditions, and the Member of Parliament to be held accountable is also available for every district. This information is provided in the form…
The Hindu: Tata’s Micro-Planning in Vijayawada to Begin on May 1
“Tata Trusts will launch the process of micro-planning for development of 264 villages in Vijayawada Parliamentary constituency starting with a two-week training session for 1,200 volunteers on May 1.” – The Hindu SocialCops was featured in The Hindu. Read the full article here.
Shipping an Internal Real-Time Dashboard: My Internship at SocialCops
It all began in November 2014 when I got to know about the openings for internships at SocialCops. I was initially hesitant about applying, given my college was still running. But, after exploring their work, the hard problems they’re looking to solve using technology and their super awesome work culture,…
Modi-fied: When We Met PMO India
We’re excited to announce that SocialCops was chosen as one of the top 10 emerging startups in India by NASSCOM to meet and speak with the PMO India Narendra Modi, along with other leading startups like: Cash Karo, My Notice Period, News In Shorts, Freshdesk, Table Grabber, Komli, Wingify, Rolocule. Shout out…
Deccan Chronicle: Devil’s in the Data
“Why 23 year old founders of SocialCops have been listed in the Forbes 30 under 30 & Fortune 40 under 40 list” – Deccan Chronicle SocialCops was featured in Deccan Chronicle. Read the full article here.
Investing Their Lives to Change One Life at a Time: Lessons on Leadership from Bihar
A couple of months ago, some friends and I were debating what distinguishes a “manager” from a “leader”. Were the two could be synonymous? If yes, then under what circumstances? Needless to say, we never arrived at a conclusion. Cut the chase to January 2015 when I was in Bihar…
Fortune India: 40 Under 40 List, 2015
“If a girl wants to know the safest route home, we should be able to help.” – Varun Banka in Fortune India We are excited to be a part of the prestigious Fortune 40 under 40 list along with the founders of companies like Flipkart, Zomato, Urban Ladder, ZipDial et…
Is Our DISE Education Data Failing Us?
There are over 1.4 million schools in India. With different kinds of schooling systems and a multitude of “school” types – government owned schools, central government schools, state government schools, low cost private schools, private schools – it was almost impossible to track school performance, utilization of funds and other important parameters. And,…
Google Search: “Travel jobs”…. How Elita Almeida Found a Cure to Her Restless Feet Syndrome
“Tum ho kahaan ki?” (“Where are you from?”), he asked. I was puzzled. Should I say Patna or Delhi or Mumbai? I was in Muzaffarpur in Bihar speaking with three NGOs on a late January afternoon. Beside us, a team from the NGO were sifting through reams of paper. I…
Forbes India 30 Under 30
“Unfettered by preconception and baggage, these men and women are giving change a real chance in India. Meet the tomorrow people.” SocialCops is part of the Forbes India 30 under 30, 2015 list! Read the full list here. Read the full list: The Forbes India 30 Under 30 list for 2015…
Why I Chose a Startup Internship in my First Semester Winter and Why You Should Too
A hard disk full of 1080p videos, high-end games, riveting music collection, a cozy room, a garam garam cup of tea and all that you could possibly find on your college’s Intranet is what most people look forward to when winter vacations come close. But, what if you could finish…
Engineering Systems to Solve Hard Problems: Building a Full-Stack Data Startup for the Developing World
When we started SocialCops, our aim was to drive decision making through data in places where it really mattered. Now that shouldn’t be a hard problem right? For those of us in the digital world, data has been about identifying patterns, beautiful visualizations, and predictive algorithms. Solving real world problems is…
7 NGOs That Are Using Data for Impact and Why You Should Use It Too
7 NGO’s that are turning towards data to utilize resources effectively, save time & costs, measure impact and why you should start too.
The Huffington Post: 500 Startups and United Nations Invest in Big Data for Social Good
“Big data allows startups, companies, governments, and societies to gather unprecedented amounts of insights that could change the world for good. Recently, 500 Startups invested in SocialCops, which processes millions of discrete data points in the most remote locations in the world for industry and social sector leaders to make data-driven…
Statistics On Child Labor: Will The New Law Change Anything?
The Labour Ministry has recently finalized the amendments to the Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Amendment (CLPRA) Bill, which proposes complete prohibition of employment of children up to the age of 14 years while banning employment of children between 15-18 years in hazardous works. We all have seen children working…
India Today: Modernising Government
“This ‘governance at your fingertips’ also creates a new way for citizen-government engagement, which can be a powerful coalition for good. MobileOne and SocialCops both offer this today and with mobile penetration increasing by the day, these initiatives will give a huge platform to ignite the minds of the youth…
Yourstory: Fundraising for Early Stage Entrepreneurs 101
“We were novices – 21 year olds from a university in Singapore — trying to figure out a way to use data to solve real life problems in India.” – Prukalpa Sankar in Yourstory SocialCops was featured in Yourstory. Read the full article here. Fundraising for early stage #entrepreneurs 101…
Why I Left My Swanky Westin Office to Work in Client Management for Grassroots India
College kids – a naïve bunch of youngsters that run purely on skill, caffeine, and an insatiable hunger to make a mark. It’s been 3 months since I officially graduated — not long enough for me to be overcome by the cynicism that all those preceding me have succumbed to; not…
Economic Times: Why Women Entrepreneurs Dominate Google India Head Rajan Anandan’s Portfolio
“In terms of scale, from his portfolio, Anandan is particularly bullish on SocialCops. He sees its five-year goal as being able to power products like Google Maps with social data, which should be useful for customers as diverse as Hindustan Unilever, Unicef and the Karnataka government, all current clients.” –…
How I Made an Android Application in 7 Days
My name is Yatin Taluja and I joined SocialCops as an Android Developer on September 1st, 2014. In October, I was presented with a project that I am proud to be a part of. When the Prime Minister launched Swachh Bharat Abhiyan on Oct 2nd, our awesome team decided to…
Economic Times: Indian Students Turn Entrepreneurs in Singapore
“Buoyed by Singapore government’s support including cash payouts and tax waivers, and assistance from universities, Indians are giving up corporate jobs for businesses in the South-east Asian country.” – Economic Times SocialCops was featured in Economic Times. Read the full article here. Born in India, trained in Sing, building big…
Economic Times: Technical Start-Ups Flourish on Deals With Indian Police Forces
“Another start-up looking at police as its key clients is Delhi-based data analytics firm SocialCops, which is in talks with Bangalore and Gurgaon traffic police. The firm performs analytics on crowd-sourced data obtained from NGOs, citizens and municipal bodies, to suggest, for example, the safest route for women to reach…
Times of India: Desi Companies Beat Facebook in “Swachh Apps Race”
“A lot of cleanliness drives have been happening all over the country and there are people who want to know how they can pitch in. These drives have to be made sustainable and not just reduced to hype-creating exercises.” – Times of India SocialCops was featured in Times of India.…
Achieving the Swachh Bharat Mission: Two Tried-and-True Models for Change
On Oct 2nd, 2014, PM Narendra Modi launched the Swachh Bharat Mission, a clarion call for citizens to participate in the process of creating a clean India. Narendra Modi’s words echoed the vision that we have been striving towards at SocialCops. We’ve always called for citizens to stop complaining and start contributing. In…
Livemint: My (Wired) Cool Idea
“These startups are not only changing what you can buy with your money online, but redefining how an idea can translate into a scalable, lucrative business.” – Livemint Socialcops was featured in the 8th issue of “Cool Ideas”. Read the full article here. My (wired) #coolidea. These #startups are redefining how an…
Livemint: SocialCops, an Ongoing Census
An article tracing our trajectory right from our days as a university startup to where we are today, a technology data company on a mission to solve the world’s biggest problems. Read the full article here. “The idea is to collaborate with as many non-profits in the country as possible,…
Why We Do What We Do: Our Learnings From a Pilot Study in Taoru
Be the change you wish to see in the world. A few years ago, I read this quote while walking and holding the hand of the children I used to teach. It struck me so deeply that it has kept me going to this day. Change is a long process – one…
My Summer Internship: What Google Won’t Tell You About SocialCops
This summer was different – different from the other lazy lousy summers where I would just sit back and relax. Being a first-year student, I wanted to experience what is like to live a “corporate life”. I was sure I would try to intern somewhere this summer. I spoke to…
My Internship Experience: Why SocialCops Makes You Want to Drop Out of College
On my first day as an intern, the first thing that struck me when I entered the SocialCops office were the oddly-positioned black and white photos with seemingly nonsensical captions on one of the walls. I was wondering whether this was some kind of voodoo thing until my attention was…
Official Funding Announcement
Last week, the official funding announcement from the SocialCops team went out – we raised USD 320k to further our mission of powering the world’s decisions through data from the grassroots. We’d like to officially welcome our kickass investors – 500 Startups, Rajan Anandan (MD, Google India) and Manoj Menon (MD, Frost…
Economic Times: Internet of Things: Know All About the Top Technology for 2014
“Delhi-based technology data startup SocialCops also uses cheap smartphones to accumulate data public infrastructure and services. For instance, Google Maps tells us the quickest route home, but not the safest route home for a girl.” – Economic Times SocialCops was featured in Economic Times. Read the full article here. #InternetofThings:…
Tech in Asia: How 500 Startups-Backed SocialCops Gets to the Bottom of the Pyramid With Big Data
“Here is how SocialCops works: data from the people on a variety of issues that affect their daily lives – from pot-holes on roads to teacher-attendance in government schools – is crowd-sourced via low-cost internet-enabled mobile phones. It also deploys field workers to remote areas with no mobile connectivity. From…
VC Circle: Delhi-Based SocialCops Raises $320K From 500 Startups, Rajan Anandan & Others
“SocialCops is taking Big Data in a direction that a few companies have been able to do, which is providing data and insights that can help solve real world problems.” – Pankaj Jain, Venture Partner at 500 Startups SocialCops was featured in VC Circle. Read the full article here. .@VCcircle: Delhi…
Economic Times: SocialCops Raises $320K Seed From 500 Startups, Rajan Anandan and Manoj Menon
“SocialCops uses mobile phones – ranging from simple feature phones to high-end smart phones to source ground level data from citizens and non-profits, says a statement. Says co- founder, Prukalpa Sankar, ‘Even today, important national level decisions about issues like vaccinations and medication affecting millions of people are made based…
Livemint: SocialCops, the Social Data Aggregator Raises $320,000 Fund From 500 Startups, Rajan Anandan and Others
“I am thrilled with the pioneering work that SocialCops is doing. We are limited only by our imagination in terms of how technology can address the challenges facing humanity. SocialCops is well poised to play an important role in helping shape a better future and humbled to be part of…
The Google Glass, Raspberry Pi, and My First Hackathon
4 weeks into my internship at SocialCops, we realized that the office had too much hardware that wasn’t being put to much use.”Let’s organize our own internal hackathon” was a random idea that someone suggested and, with that, Hackathon #1 was organized right here at our basement office in Malviya…
There Are Lies, And Then There Is Data
We’ve always said that we’re all about data. We want to power the data behind any big decision that impacts the world… social data, if you may. The Census is the only reference point for most data interpretations to measure quality of life indicators in the country. We asked ourselves…
What It’s Like to Work at SocialCops
I started to work for the young and vibrant SocialCops team as a Partnerships lead about two months ago. I came on board at a time when SocialCops was in its early phase of expansion after a few successful pilots. It’s been one hell of a experience to be on the SocialCops…
Fast Company: Using Citizens as Human Sensors to Improve Public Services
“SocialCops is a social enterprise that recruits citizens to act as ‘human sensors’ around India’s capital. After only eight months, it’s already worked on several intractable city issues by creating a mobile platform that allows people to get involved in their area.” – Fast Company Read the full article on Fast Company.…
Times of India: With Data From Grassroots, Young Guns Expose Govt’s Failures
“They call themselves the SocialCops; a team of five geeks who procure data from ground zero to work on social and civic issues. Be it the quality of the rice served in a school’s midday scheme, the non-functioning faucets in public toilets or getting residents to rate their streets on…
What the “God of Cricket” Sachin Tendulkar Taught Us About Building a Startup
This 24th of April, the team at SocialCops would like to celebrate Sachin Tendulkar. It has been a few months since India’s biggest sporting icon bid us farewell. After a brief period of uncertainty, Indian cricket has moved on. In a country which has a habit of finding heroes, it has not taken…