About DataSpeaks
DataSpeaks publishes maps, charts and dashboards about India, organised against the 17 Sustainable Development Goals. Every figure carries the source that produced it and the year it describes. If we can't source it, we don't publish it.
Why this exists
India's statistical system publishes a great deal. Ministries, the census, national sample surveys, pollution and meteorological agencies, state portals — between them they release more than most people could read in a lifetime. Scarcity isn't the problem.
Retrieval and dating are. A figure enters circulation and stays there long after the survey behind it has been superseded. A chart travels without the year it describes. A number from one survey round gets quoted as though it were current, and by the time it reaches a proposal, a news story or a council meeting, nobody can say where it came from or which year it belongs to.
DataSpeaks doesn't generate data. It locates official data, dates it, shapes it to a common form, and publishes it as something you can read, filter, download and cite — with the trail back to the source left intact.
The standard
Not aspirations. These are the conditions a figure has to meet before it appears anywhere on this site.
Every figure traces to a named official source — the ministry, agency or survey round that produced it. "Reports suggest" is not a source. If we can't name it, the figure doesn't run.
A figure without its reference year isn't a fact, it's a rumour with a decimal point. Every indicator states the period it describes, separately from the date it was published.
Where a state hasn't reported, the cell stays empty. We don't interpolate, borrow from neighbours, or carry last year's value forward. A missing number is information too — usually about the reporting system.
Every dashboard carries a provenance block: what we pulled, from where, when we pulled it, and every transformation applied between the source file and the chart.
What's on the site
One page per Sustainable Development Goal, each carrying the indicators DataSpeaks tracks against it, with unit and data year on every row. The same numbers, organised the way development work is actually planned.
One flagship question per goal, answered properly: a written argument, an indicator table, the map or chart, and the provenance behind all of it. Built and verified one at a time rather than generated in bulk.
The official sources this site draws on, each with its update cadence and how reliably it can be reached. Published openly so you can judge the foundation, not only the finished chart.
Where the data comes from
Some official data arrives through a live interface. Some sits in a file that has to be fetched on a schedule. Some exists only inside a printed report and has to be typed in by hand. That difference changes how current a figure can be and how likely it is to carry an error — so we record it against every source rather than hiding it.
The agency publishes a queryable endpoint. Figures refresh automatically and are never more than one cycle behind the source.
A file at a durable address, fetched on a schedule and checked for changes. Current to the agency's own release rhythm.
Figures that exist only in a PDF or a printed report, entered by hand with a page reference. This is where transcription error is most likely, so Tier C entries are checked twice and marked as such.
Limits
A site that publishes everything it can find isn't a data resource, it's a search result. These are the things left out on purpose — and the reason some questions here end in an honest gap instead of an answer.
Who's behind it
DataSpeaks began as a practical problem: needing defensible numbers for programme design and funding proposals, and finding that assembling them from scratch took longer than the work they were meant to support. The site is that research, made usable by anyone.
Founder
Dr. Megha Phansalkar is the Founder and Chairperson of Tisser Artisan Trust, a social enterprise dedicated to empowering rural artisans across India. She is an Urban and Regional Planner with a strong background in development and livelihood projects.
The idea of Tisser was born during her work with the National Rural Livelihood Mission (NRLM) at the World Bank. She observed that thousands of artisans in rural India depend on traditional crafts for their livelihood, yet lack market access, innovation, and fair pricing.
In 2015, Dr. Megha Phansalkar founded Tisser Artisan Trust as a social venture to:
Support rural artisans and weavers
Revive traditional handicrafts
Create sustainable livelihood opportunities
Today, Tisser has built a network of 10,000+ artisans across multiple states in India, focusing especially on empowering women artisans.
-Dr.Megha Phansalkar
Founder and Chairperson
Tisser Artisan Trust
Pick a goal, or go straight to a topic dashboard. Every chart tells you where its numbers came from before it tells you what they mean.