Combined, deduplicated report from analysis of XKDR Forum (xkdr.org) and Data for India (dataforindia.com). Covers 59 XKDR research papers, 15+ blog articles, and ~70 DFI articles across 8 topic areas.
Individual reports: XKDR Report | DFI Report
These are the foundational data sources for understanding India. Both organizations rely heavily on these.
- Link: https://microdata.gov.in/NADA/index.php/catalog/213/related-materials
- Publisher: National Statistical Office (NSO), Ministry of Statistics
- What: India's primary annual labour force survey (from 2017-18). Covers 400,000+ respondents on employment status, worker classification, earnings, unemployment, LFPR, sectoral distribution, education levels, vocational training, literacy.
- Use cases: Employment trends, women's workforce participation, graduate employment, self-employment, manufacturing workforce, salaried jobs, vocational training, literacy rates, education levels.
- Referenced by: DFI (nearly every Work, Economy, and Living Conditions article), XKDR (health worker analysis)
- Link: https://www.nfhsiips.in/nfhsuser/index.php
- Publisher: IIPS for Ministry of Health & Family Welfare
- What: Large-scale multi-round household survey (5 rounds since 1992). Covers 637,000+ households on fertility, family planning, maternal/child health, nutrition, immunisation, household amenities, biomarkers, asset ownership. Part of the global DHS program.
- Use cases: Childhood immunisation, infant mortality, child stunting, anaemia, maternal mortality, sanitation, electricity access, vehicle ownership, dairy/meat consumption, sex ratio, fertility, banking access.
- Referenced by: DFI (nearly every Health and Living Conditions article), XKDR (health research)
- Link: https://www.mospi.gov.in/ (report for 2022-23)
- Publisher: NSSO
- What: National survey on household spending, every ~5 years since 1972. Covers 500+ items. Most recent: 2022-23 (155,000+ households).
- Use cases: Consumption expenditure trends, poverty analysis, food spending patterns, vehicle ownership, electricity usage, inflation adjustment, real income analysis.
- Referenced by: DFI (Economy, Living Conditions, Health articles), XKDR (poverty and household analysis)
- Link: https://censusindia.gov.in/census.website/data/SRSB
- Publisher: Office of the Registrar General & Census Commissioner
- What: Continuous demographic survey covering ~8.8 million people. Tracks births, deaths, fertility via dual-record system. Includes verbal autopsy for causes of death.
- Use cases: Life expectancy, infant/neonatal mortality, fertility rates (TFR), maternal mortality ratio, cause-of-death analysis, disease transition, road accident/malaria mortality estimation.
- Referenced by: DFI (all Population and most Health articles), XKDR (health policy papers)
- Link: https://censusindia.gov.in/
- Publisher: Registrar General of India
- What: Decennial population census (last conducted 2011). Covers literacy, education, demographics, housing, population counts.
- Use cases: Historical baseline for all demographic analysis. Sampling frame for other surveys. Both orgs note no census since 2011 is a major data gap.
- Referenced by: Both organizations extensively
- Link: https://www.mospi.gov.in/sites/default/files/publication_reports/CAMS%20Report_October_N.pdf
- Publisher: NSSO (2022-23)
- What: Covers 1 million+ households on drinking water, sanitation, housing, phone/internet access, banking, literacy.
- Use cases: Current drinking water access, phone/internet usage, ICT skills, digital divide analysis.
- Referenced by: DFI (Living Conditions, Measurement articles)
- Link: https://mohfw.gov.in/sites/default/files/Population%20Projection%20Report%202011-2036%20-%20upload_compressed_0.pdf
- Publisher: Registrar General / National Commission on Population
- What: State-level projections through 2036 based on 2011 Census.
- Use cases: Converting survey percentages to absolute numbers. Used in nearly every article on both sites.
- Referenced by: Both organizations extensively
- Publisher: NSSO (1972 to 2011-12)
- What: Historical employment surveys, predecessor to PLFS.
- Use cases: Long-run employment trends, structural shift from agriculture, historical female LFPR.
- Referenced by: DFI (Work articles), XKDR (historical context)
- Link: https://www.mospi.gov.in/
- Publisher: Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation
- What: National and state GDP, GVA by sector, per capita income, provisional estimates.
- Use cases: GDP analysis, manufacturing GVA, sectoral composition, state economy comparisons.
- Referenced by: Both organizations
- Link: https://www.mospi.gov.in/annual-survey-industries
- Publisher: NSO (since 1960)
- What: Comprehensive factory data -- employment, ownership, industry classification, expenditure, output, capital formation. Covers 250,000 factories.
- Use cases: Factory counts, manufacturing employment (18.5M workers), manufacturing hubs, women in factory employment.
- Referenced by: DFI (Economy articles)
- Link: https://data.rbi.org.in/
- Publisher: Reserve Bank of India
- What: Official RBI data -- NSDP/GSDP, payment systems, balance of payments, banking statistics, currency data.
- Use cases: State economies, retail payments, digital payment adoption, trade analysis, banking access.
- Referenced by: DFI (Economy articles)
- Publisher: MoSPI (1,181 rural + 1,114 urban markets)
- What: Monthly index tracking prices of 299 items. Base year 2012.
- Use cases: Inflation measurement, real wage calculations, poverty line adjustments.
- Referenced by: DFI (Economy articles), XKDR (fiscal analysis)
- Link: https://www.cmie.com/ (commercial subscription)
- Publisher: Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy
- What: Suite of databases -- Prowess (corporate), CPHS (200,000 household panel), States of India (state macro indicators), Economic Outlook (macro data).
- Use cases: Financial distress prediction, household savings, electricity expenditure, state fiscal analysis, trade data, corporate research.
- Referenced by: XKDR (multiple papers). Note: DFI explicitly does not use private data sources.
- Link: https://mospi.gov.in
- Publisher: MoSPI
- What: State-level GDP in nominal and real terms.
- Use cases: Property tax buoyancy analysis, state fiscal comparisons, development benchmarking.
- Referenced by: Both (DFI for state economies, XKDR for fiscal research)
- Link: https://databank.worldbank.org/source/world-development-indicators
- What: Comprehensive global database -- poverty, health, education, trade, infrastructure for all countries.
- Use cases: International benchmarking across every topic. Both organizations use it extensively for cross-country comparisons.
- Referenced by: Both organizations
- Link: https://www.imf.org/en/Publications/WEO
- What: Global GDP projections and economic forecasts.
- Use cases: India's GDP ranking, PPP comparisons, state economy comparisons with countries.
- Referenced by: DFI (Economy articles)
- Link: https://population.un.org/wpp/
- What: Global demographic database (1950 to 2100 projections).
- Use cases: Life expectancy, fertility projections, demographic dividend, working-age population trends.
- Referenced by: DFI (Population articles)
- Link: https://www.who.int/data/gho/
- What: Global health indicators, definitions, and estimates.
- Use cases: IMR/MMR definitions, health workforce thresholds, road mortality, malaria, anaemia.
- Referenced by: DFI (Health articles)
- Link: https://ilostat.ilo.org
- What: Global labour statistics, modeled employment estimates, working conditions.
- Use cases: International employment comparisons, manufacturing gender ratios, unpaid care work.
- Referenced by: DFI (Work articles)
- Link: https://www.healthdata.org/research-analysis/gbd
- What: Modeled estimates of disease burden and causes of death globally.
- Use cases: Neonatal cause-of-death, malaria incidence (5.5M modeled vs 3.4L official), homicide rates.
- Referenced by: DFI (Health articles)
- Link: https://www.worldbank.org/en/publication/globalfindex
- What: Survey of 140,000+ across 135+ countries on bank/card usage and financial inclusion.
- Use cases: Indian bank account ownership (80%), card penetration, gender gaps.
- Referenced by: DFI (Economy articles)
- Link: https://www.worldbank.org/en/programs/icp
- What: Purchasing Power Parities across countries.
- Use cases: PPP-adjusted income comparisons, poverty line conversions.
- Referenced by: DFI (Economy articles)
- Link: https://www.statcompiler.com/en/
- What: Cross-country comparative health survey data from 90+ countries.
- Use cases: Stunting, immunisation, and health indicator comparisons.
- Referenced by: DFI (Health articles)
- Link: https://www.un.org/development/desa/pd/content/international-migrant-stock
- What: International migrant stock data by country of birth/citizenship.
- Use cases: Indian emigrant population tracking (18.5M in 2024).
- Referenced by: DFI (Population articles)
- Link: https://services.ecourts.gov.in/ecourtindia_v6/
- What: Public database of court records across Indian district courts -- filing details, hearing dates, disposal status, order copies.
- Use cases: Court performance evaluation, litigation duration analysis, case lifecycle research, MACT analysis.
- Referenced by: Both organizations
- Link: https://njdg.ecourts.gov.in/
- What: Aggregated judicial statistics on pending cases across Indian courts.
- Use cases: Judicial backlog analysis (47+ million pending cases), case counting methodology critique.
- Referenced by: Both organizations
- Link: https://www.devdatalab.org/judicial-data
- What: 43 million+ case records from subordinate courts (2010-2020).
- Use cases: Identifying most commonly invoked laws, court workload analysis.
- Referenced by: DFI (Law articles)
- Publisher: Ministry of Home Affairs
- What: Annual crime reports since 1953 -- FIR-based incident counts, crime rates, demographics.
- Use cases: Homicide statistics, crime rates per 100,000, gender breakdowns.
- Referenced by: DFI (Law articles)
- Link: https://xkdr.github.io/legal-system-dataset-frontend/
- What: Life-cycle data for commercial cases (Bombay HC) and IBC cases (NCLT Mumbai), 2022-2024. Open dataset.
- Use cases: Court reform research, litigation duration analysis.
- Referenced by: XKDR (open dataset)
- Link: http://ifrogs.org/dms/IBC/nclt_data.html
- What: Hand-collected bankruptcy cases under IBC from NCLT/NCLAT orders.
- Use cases: Financial distress prediction, insolvency research.
- Referenced by: XKDR (finance papers)
- Publisher: Ministry of Earth Sciences
- What: Gridded temperature data (1901-2024), 700+ stations, daily min/max/mean. 500+ manual observatories, 1,000+ AWS.
- Use cases: Temperature trends, climate anomalies, national temperature records.
- Referenced by: DFI (Climate article)
- Link: https://eogdata.mines.edu/products/vnl/
- What: Monthly satellite imagery of nighttime radiance. April 2012 onwards, 15-arc-second resolution.
- Use cases: Economic activity proxy, property tax analysis, war impact measurement.
- Referenced by: XKDR (multiple papers + NighttimeLights.jl package)
- Link: https://power.larc.nasa.gov/data-access-viewer/
- What: Satellite-derived solar irradiance data by location.
- Use cases: Solar panel sizing for agricultural solarisation.
- Referenced by: XKDR (Tamil Nadu solarisation paper)
- Link: https://cea.nic.in/
- What: National electricity generation, installed capacity, energy sources.
- Use cases: Non-fossil fuel energy share, electricity sector context.
- Referenced by: XKDR (electricity papers)
- Link: https://www.mospi.gov.in/ (annual publication)
- What: Annual electricity production (1.4M GWh), consumption by sector.
- Use cases: National electricity baseline.
- Referenced by: DFI (Living Conditions articles)
- Link: https://capex.cmie.com/ (commercial subscription)
- Publisher: Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy
- What: Project-level database tracking investment projects from announcement through implementation and completion. Contains 8,540+ electricity generation projects (1996-present), covering capacity, ownership (public/private), location, project status (announced, implemented, completed, stalled, shelved), cost estimates, and timeline milestones. Updated quarterly from public filings, company contacts, and news sources.
- Use cases: Infrastructure project completion analysis, energy capacity pipeline forecasting, capital expenditure tracking, stalled project monitoring, state-level project comparison.
- Referenced by: XKDR/TrustBridge (Borah, Jaitly & Sane 2026 -- "Evaluating India's Energy Ambitions"), widely used in infrastructure policy research.
- Note: Distinct from CMIE Prowess/CPHS. The CapEx derivative "CapEx dx" provides aggregated quarterly investment data. Both require commercial subscription.
- Link: https://meritindia.in/
- Publisher: Ministry of Power / POSOCO
- What: Real-time and historical data on power plant dispatch, marginal costs, and generation by plant. Covers all major thermal, hydro, nuclear, and renewable stations.
- Use cases: Plant-level generation analysis, merit order economics, renewable curtailment tracking, electricity market analysis.
- Link: https://globalenergymonitor.org/ (open access)
- Publisher: Global Energy Monitor
- What: Project-level trackers for solar, wind, coal, gas, and nuclear power plants globally, including India. Covers project status, capacity, location (coordinates), developer, and commissioning dates. Includes the Global Solar Power Tracker, Global Wind Power Tracker, and Global Coal Plant Tracker.
- Use cases: District-level energy project mapping, coal-to-renewable transition tracking, cross-referencing with CMIE CapEx for project validation.
- Link: https://nhm.gov.in/WriteReadData/l892s/1405796031571201348.pdf
- What: 100,000+ children/adolescents aged 0-19 surveyed for nutritional biomarkers.
- Use cases: Child stunting, anaemia prevalence (venous blood method comparison with NFHS).
- Referenced by: DFI (Health articles)
- Link: https://ncvbdc.mohfw.gov.in/
- What: Government malaria surveillance data.
- Use cases: Official malaria case tracking (though underestimates).
- Referenced by: DFI (Health articles)
- Link: https://main.mohfw.gov.in/documents/reports/drugs-survey-report
- What: Survey of spurious/NSQ drugs. 10% NSQ in government procurement vs 3% retail.
- Use cases: Drug procurement quality analysis.
- Referenced by: XKDR (procurement papers)
- Link: https://aishe.gov.in/aishe-final-report/
- What: Higher education enrollment and institutional data (post-Class 12).
- Use cases: Higher education trends, gender distribution, enrollment statistics.
- Referenced by: DFI (Living Conditions articles)
- Link: https://dashboard.udiseplus.gov.in/#/home
- What: Pre-primary through Grade 12 school education data.
- Use cases: School enrollment trends, dropout rates, infrastructure.
- Referenced by: DFI (Living Conditions articles)
- Link: https://asercentre.org/aser-survey/
- What: Learning outcomes, functional literacy, numeracy in rural India (since 2005).
- Use cases: Functional literacy gaps over time.
- Referenced by: DFI (Measurement articles)
- Link: https://morth.nic.in/
- What: Police-reported road accident statistics -- accidents, deaths, injuries.
- Use cases: Official road accident mortality. SRS provides alternative (higher) estimates.
- Referenced by: DFI (Health articles)
- What: Vehicle registration from regional transport offices.
- Use cases: Vehicle ownership (260M two-wheelers, 50M cars).
- Referenced by: DFI (Health, Living Conditions articles)
- What: Mobile SIM registrations, subscriber statistics.
- Use cases: Mobile penetration trends (346M to 1B+).
- Referenced by: DFI (Living Conditions articles), XKDR (regulatory papers)
- Link: https://www.cityfinance.in/home
- What: Municipal finance data at ULB level across states.
- Use cases: Property tax demand/collection analysis, municipal revenue composition.
- Referenced by: XKDR (property tax papers)
- Publisher: Reserve Bank of India
- What: Annual publications on state and municipal government finances.
- Use cases: State debt sustainability, municipal revenue analysis.
- Referenced by: XKDR (fiscal papers)
- Link: https://www.pfcindia.com/
- What: Annual performance of state power utilities -- costs, revenue, AT&C losses.
- Use cases: Discom performance ranking, cross-state electricity analysis.
- Referenced by: XKDR (electricity papers)
- Link: https://praapti.in
- What: Payment delays by discoms to power generators.
- Use cases: Electricity sector payment tracking.
- Referenced by: XKDR (Tamil Nadu papers)
- Link: https://agcensus.dacnet.nic.in/
- What: National census of agricultural landholdings by district.
- Use cases: Landholding distribution analysis for agricultural research.
- Referenced by: XKDR (solarisation paper)
- Link: https://micensus.gov.in/
- What: Census of minor irrigation sources (wells, tubewells).
- Use cases: Identifying irrigation infrastructure for agricultural solarisation.
- Referenced by: XKDR (solarisation paper)
- Publisher: Ministry of Commerce and Industry
- What: India's official merchandise trade statistics.
- Use cases: Import/export values, trade composition.
- Referenced by: DFI (Economy articles)
- Link: https://tradestat.commerce.gov.in/
- What: Detailed commodity-level trade data (HS codes).
- Use cases: Specific commodity import/export analysis.
- Referenced by: DFI (Economy articles)
- Link: https://ppac.gov.in/
- What: Petroleum import/export/consumption data.
- Use cases: Energy import dependence analysis.
- Referenced by: DFI (Economy articles)
- Link: https://www.worldbank.org/en/publication/globalfindex
- What: Global financial inclusion survey data.
- Use cases: Bank account ownership, card penetration, financial inclusion gaps.
- Referenced by: DFI (Economy articles)
- Link: https://www.gicouncil.in/
- What: Insurance industry statistics, motor insurance claims data.
- Use cases: MACT litigation analysis, insurance market dynamics.
- Referenced by: XKDR (legal/insurance papers)
- Link: https://www.sipri.org/databases/armstransfers
- What: International arms transfers since 1950.
- Use cases: India's arms import composition and trends.
- Referenced by: XKDR (FIMI paper)
- Link: https://rsf.org/en/media-ownership-monitor-who-owns-media-india
- What: Media ownership mapping -- audience shares, ownership structures, concentration.
- Use cases: Media concentration analysis for regulatory commentary.
- Referenced by: XKDR (media ownership paper)
- Link: https://data.gov.in
- What: 234,000+ datasets across sectors under NDSAP.
- Use cases: Various government datasets for research.
- Referenced by: XKDR (solarisation, data governance papers)
- NighttimeLights.jl -- Julia package for VIIRS data processing (https://github.com/xKDR/NighttimeLights.jl)
- Survey.jl -- Julia package for complex survey analysis
- DtD.jl -- Julia package for Distance-to-Default calculations
- Aqui -- DIY air quality monitor (https://github.com/ayushpatnaikgit/aqui)
- Legal System Dataset -- Open court data (https://xkdr.github.io/legal-system-dataset-frontend/)
- Referenced by: XKDR (various papers)
- Link: https://microdata.gov.in/NADA/index.php/home
- What: Unit-level data from NSO surveys (PLFS, HCES, EUS, CAMS, etc.)
- Use cases: Research access to household survey microdata.
- Referenced by: DFI (multiple articles)
- Link: https://ghsl.jrc.ec.europa.eu/
- What: Satellite-derived building volume grids at ~90m resolution globally.
- Use cases: Property tax potential estimation (explains >80% of PT demand variation).
- Referenced by: XKDR
- Link: https://mahabhulekh.maharashtra.gov.in (Maharashtra)
- What: Digitised parcel-level land records (7/12 extracts) with ownership, area, land type.
- Use cases: Women's land ownership mapping, land record quality analysis.
- Referenced by: XKDR
- What: Index measuring land record digitisation across 33 states.
- Use cases: Studying link between land record quality and household credit access.
- Referenced by: XKDR
- Link: https://www.mca.gov.in/
- What: Financial filings of ~1.1 million registered companies.
- Use cases: MSME analysis, firm-level research.
- Referenced by: XKDR
- What: Microsecond-level trading data from Indian stock exchanges.
- Use cases: Market microstructure research, algorithmic trading analysis.
- Referenced by: XKDR
- Link: https://dbie.rbi.org.in/
- What: Ownership of government securities, interest rates, maturity patterns, CRR/SLR data.
- Use cases: Analysis of sovereign debt composition and who lends to the Indian state.
- Referenced by: XKDR
- What: Investment portfolio data for pension, provident, and insurance funds.
- Use cases: Tracking institutional investor mandatory government bond holdings.
- Referenced by: XKDR
- Link: https://censusindia.gov.in/census.website/data/VSREPORT
- What: Mandatory registration of births, deaths, stillbirths (98%+ completeness by 2023).
- Use cases: Vital statistics baseline, mortality tracking.
- Referenced by: DFI
- Link: Ministry websites / https://cga.nic.in/
- What: Object-head expenditure data from all Union government ministries.
- Use cases: Estimating government procurement (11-12% of GDP), spending gap analysis.
- Referenced by: XKDR
- What: CHRI (2015), IDFC/SATARC (2017), Karnataka CVS (2018-19), SPIR.
- Use cases: Measuring actual vs reported crime, non-reporting patterns.
- Referenced by: XKDR
- Link: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.9828827.v7
- What: Combined DMSP-OLS + VIIRS annual nighttime lights (1992-2021).
- Use cases: Long-run economic activity analysis.
- Referenced by: XKDR
- Link: https://globaldatalab.org
- What: Subnational socioeconomic indicators including GNI per capita.
- Use cases: Ground-truth for nighttime lights GDP proxy validation.
- Referenced by: XKDR
- Link: https://kgis.ksrsac.in/ (Karnataka), https://gis.rajasthan.gov.in/ (Rajasthan)
- Publisher: State GIS agencies (KSRSAC for Karnataka, RSAC for Rajasthan, etc.)
- What: GIS shapefiles of administrative boundaries -- ULB (Urban Local Body) limits, district/taluk/village boundaries. Available for some states; coverage is uneven. Karnataka's KGIS portal provides downloadable ULB boundary shapefiles used in property tax research.
- Use cases: Clipping satellite rasters (GHSL, VIIRS) to municipal boundaries for fiscal capacity estimation. Overlaying spatial data with municipal finance records. Essential for any ULB-level geospatial analysis.
- Referenced by: XKDR (Seth et al., 2026 -- property tax potential paper)
- Link: https://onlinemaps.surveyofindia.gov.in/
- Publisher: Survey of India, Department of Science and Technology
- What: Official administrative boundary maps and shapefiles for India -- international, state, district, sub-district, and village boundaries. The authoritative source for India's geospatial boundary data. Also see community alternatives: DataMeet (https://github.com/datameet/maps), ML Infomap, and OpenStreetMap extracts.
- Use cases: Base layer for any spatial analysis requiring administrative boundaries. District/sub-district level aggregation of satellite or survey data.
- Referenced by: Multiple research contexts
- Link: https://epanjiyan.rajasthan.gov.in/ (Rajasthan), https://igrs.ap.gov.in/ (AP), https://igr.maharashtra.gov.in/ (Maharashtra)
- Publisher: State Departments of Registration and Stamps (IGRS)
- What: District Level Committee (DLC) rates / circle rates / guideline values -- the government-notified minimum property valuations for each locality, used as the floor for stamp duty calculation and property registration. Revised annually. Lookup by district, SRO, village/colony. Also provides property registration data (transaction volumes, sale values).
- Use cases: Property market analysis, stamp duty revenue estimation, land valuation studies, cross-referencing with satellite-derived built stock measures, real estate price indices at granular geographic levels.
- Referenced by: Property tax and municipal finance research
| Category | Count |
|---|---|
| Indian Government Surveys & Census | 12 |
| Economic & Financial Data | 8 |
| International/Multilateral Sources | 10 |
| Judicial & Legal Data | 6 |
| Climate, Energy & Satellite | 10 |
| Health-Specific | 3 |
| Education | 3 |
| Infrastructure & Transport | 3 |
| Municipal & Fiscal | 6 |
| Agricultural & Land | 4 |
| Trade | 3 |
| Financial Inclusion & Insurance | 2 |
| Geopolitical & Media | 2 |
| Open Data Portals & Tools | 3 |
| Total unique data sources | ~75 |
- PLFS -- referenced in 25+ articles/papers
- NFHS -- referenced in 20+ articles/papers
- Census of India / Population Projections -- referenced in 20+ articles/papers
- SRS (Sample Registration System) -- referenced in 15+ articles
- World Bank WDI -- referenced in 15+ articles/papers
- NSS/HCES/CAMS Surveys -- referenced in 15+ articles
- National Accounts / GDP (MoSPI) -- referenced in 12+ articles/papers
- WHO Global Health Observatory -- referenced in 10+ articles
- e-Courts / NJDG -- referenced in 10+ articles/papers
- RBI Data (DBIE, BSR, Payment Systems) -- referenced in 8+ articles