CIVICDATALAB - Key Persons
Aashim is a frontend engineer at CDL. His areas of interest includes building web apps and frontend designs. Apart from tech he loves to play badminton and reading current affairs.
Abhinav is a data enthusiast and tech developer. He loves exploring new technologies and understanding things from scratch . He is a foodie and travel maniac.
Job Titles:
- Data Strategist and Partnerships
- Events
Apoorv started his "open data" journey as a volunteer, with DataKind, to do "Data-for-good". He wasn't sure what "data-for-good" meant then. Searching for answers, he joined the two-member CivicDataLab team, in 2018, and started collaborating to make public datasets more accessible to citizens. This sounded as easy as creating an API, but soon he found about the other critical components that are needed, and are often hidden or missing, to enhance public access to information. His role in the team is to find collaboration opportunities that seek to bridge the gap between the demand and supply of key datasets especially in the areas of Law and Justice.
To curate more open datasets in this sector and contribute to an improved practice of using data to understand the nuances of Rule of Law and Access to Justice, he has lead a few research initiatives including (non-inclusive list)
Arun is an Economist & Policy Researcher. An eternal optimist and a perennial pessimist, he has seen the highs and lows of governance in India at his previous stint at NITI Aayog as a Young Professional.
At CivicDataLab, Arun works to increase availability of public finance data in the open as part of the Open Budgets India initiative, an essential building block to ensure transparency and accountability.
Bianca is a researcher working in the domain of urban governance with the objective of strengthening democratic institutions and actors. Her interests lie in interdisciplinary and cross-cutting issues related to urban equity, inclusive planning and community development.
She is interested in better understanding how public institutions function in urban areas and the status of city-level information accessible to its residents, administrative officials, local elected representatives, among other frontline workers.
At CivicDataLab, Bianca is working across initiatives to explore more open, accessible and equitable ways in which technology can play a role in improving citizen engagement in everyday civic issues.
Apart from reading and walking, she enjoys doing ‘nothing' in her free time.
Deepthi Chand aka DC is data and tech evangelist motivated towards understanding the role technology plays in making the civic engagements better in the country.
At CivicDataLab, he works with Better Cities and Education verticals to understand and improve technology implementation using Open Source tools. He has been instrumental as a chapter leader in defining the working operations of DataKind Bangalore. He has previously worked as a software consultant at Sahaj and Thoughtworks.
"The problems we face are always going to be more than the solutions we have. Thus, try co-creating your solutions in open so that these can reach to more people."
Gaurav is a technologist turned social entreprenuer working to strengthen data-for-good ecosystem in India. At CivicDataLab, he works closely with Public Finance and Law & Justice verticals to improve access to information and enable civic-engagements using Open Data and Open-Source practices. He has been instrumental in starting initiatives like DataKind Bangalore & Open Budgets India. He is passionate about Open Data, Open Source Tech, Education and Human Rights. When he is away from the keyboard, he enjoys spending his time travelling, teaching and doing photography.
Job Titles:
- Designer
- Product Designer
Jatin Baghel is a self taught product designer who loves creating simple, meaningful yet intuitive interfaces by the means of a thorough user's understanding.
Kabeer is an urban researcher and a chai addict, who loves to find simple ways of communicating seemingly complex research knowledge and data sets with different citizen groups. In his free time, he likes to walk the narrow streets of old city areas or hike amidst nature and sometimes sketches, reads, and binge-watches mind-numbing series.
Job Titles:
- Associate Researcher
- Researcher With the Public Finance Team
"Life is so constructed that the event does not, cannot, will not, match the expectation."
Phani is a researcher with the Public Finance Team. Despite being fresh out of his masters, Phani likes to refer to himself as the 'jack of all trades, master of none' but as the rest of the saying goes, "is better than one." His areas of interest are economics, public finance, healthcare, education, labour issues and welfare. He aims to study these areas while working towards the mission of #OpenData and #Data4Good.
When he is not doom scrolling on Twitter, you will find him enjoying sports or watching movies and TV shows.
Ruchira comes from a background of social sector and management consulting. She likes to understand various development challenges that are encountered on ground. Having an experience in both goverenment and corporate ecosystem, she has understood the need to bridge both to attain the greater goodness of the society.
Apart from this, she is a tea enthusiast and always finds reason to indulge in a cup of tea.
Sai comes to CDL after exploring the solution space in the development sector from an academic and consulting approaches. After this experience, he has come to a belief that enabling and scaling these approaches through open source technologies is the need of the hour. This belief has brought Sai to CDL as a Data Engineer. He prefers to be called a problem solver than a techie!
Outside of work, he's generally found near chai walas and cinemas - mostly on a cycle.
Sanjay Pinna is a Frontend Engineer who always has something to do (if not he will create something) that makes a difference, so he always has a goal in his mind to accomplish and he likes to innovate & create things which helps to solve the existing problems.
Shoaib Ahmed is a Frontend Engineer currently working with Open Data Platforms. His areas of focus are building web apps and platforms that are semantic, accessible, inclusive, and efficient.
At CivicDataLab, Shoaib mainly works with the Public Finance sector, building platforms that make data more easily understandable and accessible by a variety of users.
Apart from this, Shoaib loves fanboying over great minimalistic designs, watching anime, reading novels, and building PCs.
Job Titles:
- Technologist
- Civic Technologist
Shreya is a civic technologist and a data fanatic. She has found her happy place in developing resilient solutions to civic issues. In her career journey she has been part of various efforts such as leading a project, developing solutions, hiring etc.
She is an enthusiast of Free and Open Source Software(Foss) and believes that opening up government data for public can strenghten civic engagement and bring in revolutionary changes.
She also has keen interest in data visusalisation, converting numbers into visusally appealing elements. At CivicDataLab she works closely in Public Finance sector and has been contributing in both technical and non-technical problems.
Apart from this Shreya's spirit animal is Panda. She is also learning to play guitar and cooking. Netflix is her companion when she just wants to relax.
Tauseef works as a Backend Engineer at CDL and is a tech enthusiast. He likes to learn new tech and build tools that solve problems.
Apart from tech, Tauseef is intrested in reading, exploring new places and meeting new people.