In 2005, India legislated one of the best ‘Right to Information’ laws in the world which changed the public information landscape and accessibility in the country. It was the first step towards transparency and accountability of governance. In 2012, India came up with the National Data Sharing and Accessibility Policy (NDSAP), popularly known as the ‘Open Data policy’ of the Government of India. In Spite of these systems in place, data and information remain in complex and overwhelming formats in the country. Some of the data that is meant for the public does not even exist in the public domain. Factly was born to create supporting platforms and infrastructure to bridge this gap and strengthen democracy through engagement.
Factly strives to cultivate civic participation and engage citizens in accessing, understanding and using high value government records at the centre, state and local body levels.
Factly will transform the public information landscape and spearhead citizen engagement with public data to evolve into a reliable and significant resource in the context of public information & governance.
What We Do
- Data Journalism/Fact Check: Factly’s written and visual stories lay out facts with evidence and help separate the wheat from the chaff in times of hyper connectivity and constant information bombardment. The content aims to simplify public data & information that might otherwise be in complex forms.
- Information Tools: Creating and developing tools that will increase access to public data and information by making it easy, interactive and intuitive. Counting India is Factly’s first tool in its beta version that focuses on accessibility and data visualization of Census-2011 data. Factly is currently working on other tools that are in the development stage.
- Advocating Open Data: Factly believes that for better public engagement with government data, the supply side also has to be strengthened. Factly actively advocates ‘Open Data’ policy to governments and agencies that house large amounts of public information. Factly collaborates and provides services to governments and institutions to release data to the public domain. Besides these, Factly engages with various stakeholders from across the ‘Open Data’ spectrum to build successful case studies & use cases. Factly also conducts training sessions on accessing, understanding & analysing public data to journalists, public policy enthusiasts, NGOs etc.
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