Here are 10 striking visualizations from India's Open Government Data Platform

India’s open government data platform has datasets across multiple sectors, that are available for public use. Agriculture, commerce, finance, food, industries and infrastructure are some of the sectors for which data is available. The datasets are being continuously updated with links back to the various official sources. Some states and municipal corporations have their own sub sites within the portal, if sufficient data is available.

Data in its raw form is just tables of numbers, and the portal makes the data easy for consumption and sharing with integrated and powerful visualization tools. A portion of the dataset can be selected for visualisation, the type of visualisation selected, and then the resulting image can directly be shared on social networks from the portal itself, or downloaded to the machine of the user. Here are some striking visuals to showcase the potential and possibilities of the platform. The visuals can be clicked to view larger versions.

10. Top 10 States/UTs in Pending Cases in Family Courts

Uttar Pradesh, Kerala and Bihar have the most cases pending in family courts. Out of these, Uttar Pradesh is far ahead of the others, despite having more family courts than any other state, with 76 courts. The number of pending cases in family courts across India as of May 2016 was 6,72,075. The top five states together account for nearly 65 per cent of the total pending cases in India. Shown in the graphic are only the top ten states with the most number of pending cases. While data is unavailable for some states, Sikkim has the lowest number of pending cases from the states where data is available, with 163 pending cases.

09. Consumer Price Index from January to October 2016

The Consumer Price Index measures the general change in prices of goods used on a day to day basis for households. The data refers to an all India price index, with the base year 2012, which has an index of 100. Over the course of the year, the index shows the amount of inflation. The data shows a spike in food prices in July. The data is combined for both rural and urban India. The raw data has information on more categories of goods, including clothes, sugar and non alcoholic beverages.

08. Top 20 Countries with Indian Prisoners in their Jails  

All over the world, there were 6,804 Indian prisoners in the jails of 72 countries as of May 2016. Saudi Arabia with 1,696 prisoners has the most among all the countries listed, with 24.93 per cent of all Indians jailed in other countries. The next highest was the United Arab Emirates followed by Nepal. The top three countries are considered outliers, or countries with many more Indian prisoners than the normal or average worldwide. The raw data only lists the countries with Indian prisoners, and does not have granular information about the reasons the individuals have been jailed.

07. Eco-Tourism Projects Sanctioned in 2015-16

Over the year 2015-16, 1719.11 crores were allocated to eco-tourism projects across the country. The raw data contains information of the number of projects, as well as the crores allocated for these projects on all the states starting from 2013. Compared to 2013-14, there were a lot fewer approvals for eco-tourism projects. No state had more than two projects sanctioned in 2015-16, whereas in 2013-2014, Uttarakhand had 29 projects approved, and Uttar Pradesh had 26. The budget allocated to eco-tourism projects has also fallen.

A total of Rs 1,475.2 crores were allocated to smart city projects across the nation over the course of 2015-2016. Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh got the biggest allocation of funds for smart city projects over this period. The top five states got more than 90.52 per cent of the total money allocated across India, and the top 10 states shown in the graph received more than 95.67 per cent of the total funds released for smart city missions. The data is pulled from a Rajya Sabha Session, and the raw data contains the funds released in every state, but only for 2015-2016.

05. Rural Subscriber Base of Internet Users

This shows the number of rural users who have access to internet services. The regions are not state wise, and some states may have multiple divisions, such as UP, and some other states may be bunched together, as is done for some North Eastern States. This data has previously been released by Trai. Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh top the charts in terms of rural access to internet services. Surprisingly, the cities of Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata are at the bottom. Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir also have low connectivity. Most of the internet usage is through mobile phones. More information is available here .

04. Rate of Total Cognizable Crimes under Indian Penal Code (IPC) during 2015

This visualisation shows the total number of crimes committed under the Indian Penal Code during 2015. Reading the map can be a little complicated because the map shows the number of crimes committed per lakh, and not the total number of crimes committed in the state. While Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra contributed to 9.1 and 9.3 per cent of the total crimes, Maharashtra still has a lower crime rate when compared to its population. Maharashtra had the most reported cognizable crimes in absolute terms, with 2,75,414 cases being reported. A total of 29,49,400 cases were registered across the country in 2015.

03. Currency Seized/Recovered under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act during 2015

In 2015, a total of Rs 90,60,550 was recovered under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act. West Bengal had the most currency seized, and by a wide margin at that. The data is sourced from the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB). The Rs. 61,77,000 seized from West Bengal amounted to 68.17 per cent of the total amount recovered in 2015. Considerably amounts were recovered from Bihar as well as Jammu and Kashmir. Rs. 1000 was recovered from Meghalaya, which amounts to 0.01 per cent of the amount seized across India.

02. Forest Cover of India from 1987 to 2015

This might come as surprising good news for environmentalists in India. From a low in 1997, the forest cover in India has steadily been increasing. From 2001 to 2005, there was a 5.55 per cent increase in the forest cover, the biggest growth in forest cover seen in recent years. The data goes back all the way to 1987. As of 2015, the total forest cover in India was at 7,01,673 square kilometers, which was 21.34 per cent of the total geographic area of India. The raw data does not contain any information apart from what can be seen in the graph.

The growth in the number of telephone connections in India only saw a spurt in 2009, which was just three years before the maximum telephone density seen in 2012, in the urban areas of India. In 2014, tele-density in rural India reached a third of the tele-density in urban India. The maximum growth of tele-density in rural India was seen in 2011, with a growth of 9.52 per cent. 2013 saw the minimum growth of urban tele-density, which was in fact a negative growth of -22.53 per cent. Between 2001 to 2012, the growth of tele-density in both urban and rural India has been steady. The graph is a combination of both fixed line and wireless telephone connections.

The Open Data Government Platform is a portal that increases the transparency in the working of the government, and also opens up the officially collected data for innovative users. Policy makers, think tanks and the common public can use the data in ways that are relevant to them. There are over 400 APIs available based on the data-sets, that developers can integrate into their own offerings.