How India Lives

12/08/2025

What an amazing experience at the Google India News Summit 2025! 🙌
Our co-founder John Samuel shared insights on AI’s role in shaping the future of news. We loved connecting with journalists, innovators, and tech leaders from across the country.
Here’s to more innovation, collaboration, and storytelling that matters!

23/05/2023

Today is the last day (May 23rd) to apply for the Data Journalism Accelerator conducted by us with support from Google News Initiative. Do spread the word.

Data Journalism Accelerator training and mentoring program led by How India Lives and supported by the Google News Initiative

08/05/2023

📢 Exciting news for Indian journalists! How India Lives, with support from Google News Initiative, is launching Data Journalism Accelerator, a 6-month program to train and mentor 20 chosen journalists/newsrooms in data-driven storytelling.

Apply now! https://bit.ly/41PJEhb

05/05/2023

WHO says Covid-19 no longer a 'global health emergency'. Here are some numbers:
Peak death rate per week - 100,000 in January 2021
Latest death rate per week - 3,500 on April 24, 2023
Official death estimate - 7 million
Unofficial death estimate - 20 million
Vaccine doses given - 13 billion (1.6X of global population)
Confirmed infections - 765 million (10% of global population)

"Dr Mike Ryan, from the WHO's health emergencies programme, said the emergency may have ended, but the threat is still there."

Source: 'Covid global health emergency is over, WHO says' - BBC News

16/01/2023

Our recent story was on the Hockey World Cup that is being held in Odisha. India won the first match against Spain in the opening encounter before a capacity crowd in Rourkela. The story traces the resurgence of Indian men's hockey and why its important for the world hockey

02/02/2022

Ten interesting numbers from India’s central government budget and what it means:

1. There are 3.46 million central government employees earning Rs 4.2 lakh crore or 22% of taxes collected. This doesn’t include the armed forces.

2. In addition, the government also spends Rs 2.07 lakh crore on pensions, or 11% of the tax revenue. A third of tax revenues is spent on salaries and pensions.

3. Interest payments on loans taken to bridge budget deficits is another Rs 9.4 lakh crore or 49% of tax revenues. .Wondering how big is the debt? It is Rs 147,48,875 crore. So, these three items alone (salaries, pensions and interest payment) account for 83% of tax revenues.

4. Individual citizens don’t have to pay back the debt directly. Current debt is future tax payable by citizens. Per capita debt is Rs 1.06 lakh. This doesn’t include state governments and external debt.

5. So, how much is the budget provided for education and public health? Around Rs 95,000 crore or 5% of tax revenues. To be fair, both are the state subjects. If the government increases health spending to 1% of GDP, then it has to increase the health spending by 6.3 times of current allocation of Rs 41,011 crore.

6. What can the government do to earn money? They could start by reducing litigation. Rs 12.13 lakh crore is under dispute. There is another Rs 4.05 lakh crore tax revenue not collected even though there is no dispute. These two, if realised, can fund health expenditure at 1% of GDP for next six years.

7. In a country of 1.4 billion consumers, only 433 companies earned profits (before tax) more than Rs 500 in FY 2019-20. They paid more than half of corporate income tax. 53% of 9.17 lakh companies that filed Income Tax returns reported losses or zero profits.

8. How much does Section 80 C tax savings impact tax revenue? Rs 88,301 crore in FY 2020-21. At the same level, if 80C was removed, the government would have collected an additional 5% tax revenue.

9. What about the land and buildings owned by the government? They are valued at Rs 19.77 lakh crore in the budget documents, along with financial investments in state-run companies. Land alone is worth Rs 3.77 lakh crore.

10. If tax revenues are not enough, how is the government spending so much? Borrowings and selling government companies. Centre alone will borrow Rs 16.6 lakh crore in FY 22-23, and they hope to earn Rs 65,000 crore by selling equity stakes in government companies.

If you have come this far, we are sure you will love our weekly newsletter, ‘Data Byte’.

09/01/2022

Interesting data series # 7 - Omicron vs Delta in Delhi

Number of days for test positivity to reach 20% from 1%
Now - 11 days
April - May 2021 - 28 days

Hospitalisation vs active cases
Now - 1,586 out of 48,178 active cases (3.2%)
Delta - 8,800 out of 50,000 active cases (17.6)

Data source: https://indianexpress.com/article/cities/delhi/delhi-daily-covid-cases-omicron-death-7713578/

24/09/2021

Interesting data series # 5 - Freshworks
The Chennai-based firm successfully listed in NYSE this week. Here are some of the numbers:
1. It earned $250 million in revenue and incurred a loss of $57 million in calendar 2020.
2. For every US$ revenue, it lost 23 cents - mainly due to higher research and marketing costs
3. Total # of customers - 48,000
4. Customers with billing more than $5,000 per year - 11,570
5. Customers paying $50,000 or more per year - 881
6. Top 10 customers account for less than 5% of annual recurring revenue
7. No customer account more than 1% of revenue. New term - ARR is defined as 'sum total of the subscription revenue we would contractually expect to recognize over the next 12 months from all customers at a point of time.

23/09/2021

Interesting data series #4 - NEET coaching centres

So how big is the coaching industry that prepares students for NEET, the entrance exam to secure a medical seat in India. According to a Tamil Nadu appointed committee, the annual income of such coaching centres was Rs 5,750 crore (around $800 million). This is just one state.
Tamil Nadu (TN) govt's appointed committee estimates:
1. # of coaching centres - more than 400
2. Fee ranges from Rs 35k to Rs 1 lakh for short term courses (one month to a year) to Rs 1.75 lakh for long term
3. In TN, 99% of students who got admission received coaching
4. Combined revenue of all coaching centres in TN alone - Rs 5,750 crore.
5. Annual income of parents of students studying in govt schools ranges Rs32.5k to Rs 54k
6. Annual income of parents whose kids are in CBSE schools range Rs229k to Rs595k.

Result: More students from CBSE schools, less from government-run and Tamil medium ones.

20/09/2021

Interesting data points series # 3 Road Accidents
1. Number of cases filed for deaths caused due to negligence (road accidents) was 120,176 in 2020.
2. Compared to 2019, it has declined by 12% cases, probably due to Covid-19 nationwide lockdown + travel restrictions
3. More than a third (34.28%) of these cases are hit and run
4. Top three states are Uttar Pradesh (17,513), Maharashtra (10,868) and Madhya Pradesh (10,614).
5. By crime rate, Telangana (16.8%), Chhattisgarh (13.9%) and Haryana (14.4%) top the list
6. This data should not be confused with road accident deaths, which will be released in 'Accidental Deaths & Suicides in India" report.