Posts by author
Vasundhara Garg
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…
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…
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…
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.
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.
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…
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…
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…
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…
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.” –…
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.…
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,…
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…
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…
Livemint: India Needs Technology and Not “Durbars”
“Last year a group of engineers from Singapore, with the aim of using technology to create change, set up Socialcops.com, a citizen platform that sources reports regarding civic issues. There are several, isolated initiatives like these dotting the country. But lacking in support and funding, they run out of steam…