While India struggles with data access, improved journalistic practices may offer a solution, author and data journalist Rukmini Shrinivasan said at a book talk.

Shrinivasan spoke at an Oct. 21 event titled “Data, Politics and Public Policy in Modern India,” hosted by Georgetown University’s Asian Studies Program. The event featured a discussion with Shrinivasan on the political implications of her research, which ranged from personal interviews with Indian locals to expert statisticians. McCourt School of Public Policy Professor Jishnu Das moderated the book talk, which was also organized by Asian Studies Teaching Professor Cecilia Van Hollen and Economics Associate Professor Shareen Joshi. The optimization of political data analysis is the central focus of Shrinivasan’s book “Whole Numbers and Half Truths: What Data Can and Cannot Tell Us About Modern India,” which was published in December 2021.

According to Van Hollen, Shrinivasan’s work exemplifies the essential role of data collection in effective governance and strengthened democracy. Van Hollen said data can provide leaders with accurate information on how to best lead.

“She also pointed to the dangers of inaccurate, incomplete data during the COVID-19 pandemic when data dramatically under-reported COVID-related deaths, leading to a false sense of public health security,” Van Hollen wrote to The Hoya. “Good data can help guide political action and strategy and Shrinivasan’s talk was also a call to action for developing global networks to build up good, reliable data on India for Indians.”

Van Hollen said Shrinivasan also noted the prevalence of incorrect stereotypes about the political views of the Indian people that could be dispelled by paying more attention to statistical findings.

“In her talk at Georgetown, she demonstrated the importance of looking at reliable data as a way to counter assumptions that people may have about Indian society,” Van Hollen wrote. “For example, people who live in liberal bubbles, often assert that most Indians believe in the importance of secular democracy and that inter-caste and inter-religious marriages have been increasing over time, whereas the data does not bear this out at all.”

According to Das, Shrinivasan’s mission to integrate data analysis into Indian journalism was inspired by the work of American publications like The New York Times. Das said it is important to stress Shrinivasan’s insight that journalism can act as a medium to simplify often complex data and language to the general public.

“She was saying we really need to use the media to democratize an understanding of data, and I thought that is absolutely fascinating,” Das told The Hoya. “It’s not the experts or the technocrats that need to figure out how to use and work with data. You need to explain to the polity in general what the data is, what its uses are, where the problems are and be honest about them.”

The problem of complex data analysis that is not easily accessible for most people is a global issue, according to Joshi.

“This is actually one of the challenges of our time: the rapid spread of digital technologies across the world, together with the advances in computing power have created a huge volume of data, but for citizens much of that data remains inaccessible and incomprehensible,” Joshi wrote to The Hoya.

Joshi said it is essential to remain critical of data, warning that a lack of transparency and openness in data collection may lead to profit-based exploitation of vulnerable populations who are unaware of phenomena such as data mining.

“In the U.S. right now, those who own data typically have more power and influence than the people in their datasets –– think of social media companies,” Joshi said. “They have more incentive to use that data for their own interests rather than the improvement of public policy.”

Unless data is conveyed in more simplified, accessible ways, the majority of people will be unable to engage with and benefit from the massive influx of research in the digital age, according to Das.

“My sense is we’re at this weird juncture where the world is now full of more data than ever before, but somehow it feels like we have less information than ever before,” Das said.

According to Das, journalism must also work to teach the public how to properly interpret data to avoid misinformation.

Das said the future of data analysis is inherently tied to politics, which will dictate what kinds of information are prioritized in research.

“All data is political. What data do you actually choose to collect? What precise question do you ask?” Das said. “These are all going to be informed by a broader discussion that hopefully is taking place within a democratic debate.”