government
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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…
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indian railways
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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…
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Realm
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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…
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design
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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…
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data, cleanliness, swachh bharat
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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…
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youth ki awaaz
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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…
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dise
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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,…
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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…
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huffington post, socialcops, big data, UN, startup
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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…
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rajan anandan
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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.” –…
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economic times, socialcops, rajan anandan, entrepreneurs, singapore, internet of things
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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…
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economic times, socialcops, rajan anandan, entrepreneurs, singapore, internet of things
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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…
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Swachh Bharat, Narendra Modi, Technology, Android, swachh bharat mission
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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…
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livemint, socialcops. startups
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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…
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economic times, socialcops, rajan anandan, entrepreneurs, singapore, internet of things
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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:…
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big data, techinasia, startup, technology, india, funding, rajan anandan
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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…
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economic times, socialcops, rajan anandan, entrepreneurs, singapore, internet of things
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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…
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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.…
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