Data and its dilemmas

BOOK REVIEW

- ARUSHI BHASKAR

Over the last decade, much discourse has been generated over India’s data: Its unreadability, what it shows versus what it hides, how it can be utilised as a public good, and so on and so forth. Today, we are witnessing a phenomenon in which a rise in access to data hasn’t led to a corresponding rise in numeracy skills — what Rohit Saran, the author of 100 Ways to See India, describes as “flooded with numbers, but starved for insights”.

Most media houses currently have a daily or weekly product that attempts to make sense of the deluge of numbers offered by data sets in India, while some new-age ventures such as IndiaSpend focus solely on data journalism. There are also books like Whole Numbers and Half Truths by Rukmini S that also try to unravel the intricacies of data and offer readers an analysis not just of the numbers themselves, but also of how far these numbers can actually help. 100 Ways to See India is another step in this direction, packed with eye-catching visuals and the promise of seeing where we as a country are headed more than seven decades after Independence.