This blog analyses ward-level containment strategies during the first and second wave of COVID-19 in Mumbai

Data privacy conversations are incomplete without acknowledging how leading mobile operating systems have been gaining access to granular data on smartphone users, write Meenaz Munshi, Anushka Bhansali and Hemant Adrakar. Excerpts from the blog: “Even a basic minimal configuration of both iOS and Android handsets can share data with Apple/Google, on average, every 4.5 minutes even when the phone is […]

Harsh Vardhan Pachisia and Sharmadha Srinivasan argue that technology is not a silver bullet for governance. Technical solutions must be supplemented with structural improvements to ensure effective delivery of public services. Excerpts from the blog: “The current vaccination programme for a significant proportion of its population – age 18-45 years – requires compulsory registration on its online platform, CoWIN. […]

How can behavioural science be used to support the adoption of safer practices? Our project in Punjab to encourage early testing during the COVID-19 pandemic holds important lessons for public health communication campaigns

In this piece, the authors outline how states have harnessed institutional reform, decentralised governance, and social mobilisation to fight the pandemic.

A national geospatial policy should encompass vital principles of governance that set up the ecosystem for success.

In this document, the general principles that should serve as the the foundation of the policy are discussed. Next, the implementation of the policy, in particular regarding its authorities and tools are discussed. The terms proposed for opening geospatial data along with the elements of privacy and standards that should be kept in mind are […]

This post explores the COVID-19 testing strategy in Mumbai during the first two waves of the pandemic.

Throughout the pandemic, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) released daily and granular information on a variety of indicators. In this first part of our series analysing this data, we deep dive into COVID-19 mortality in Mumbai.

Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) have become a popular methodological choice for policy analysis in the developing world.