Thejesh G.N. converted his love for data and maps into a mission for free access to information

When roads, bridges and other projects are immediately thrown open to the public, why is information generated by government departments kept under shrouds of secrecy?

The question has remained the focal point for Thejesh G.N., a software engineer who has converted his love for data and maps into a mission for free access to information.

Years before “Digital India” became a policy, Thejesh and data scientist S. Anand had come together in 2010 to describe Bengaluru in terms of data. “I left a software company to work for a non-governmental organisation. It was then that I started thinking about data for policy or public use,” he said.

More people joined their discussions leading to formation of the Trust DataMeet in 2011. Now, their mailing list comprises more than 1,400 people from across the country while the data meet is being held in six major cities, including Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai.

“In 2014, before the general election, we sat together at a data meet and made the base maps for the parliamentary constituencies. This was used by journalists and psephologists for electoral analysis,” he says.

The data has seen the OpenBangalore project taking shape. It has everything from pre-schools to BMTC bus routes to census information. The popularity of the meets has even seen Union government officials from data.gov.in seeking their help in making information more accessible, he said.

The data meet also spawned similar meetings on using openmapstreets – which has seen maps of Bengaluru being customised to record trees in layouts and use of Kannada names making them useful for taxi drivers.

Apart from this, he has worked for the AskYourGovt.in, which tabulates RTI queries while also providing ready formats for other activists.

The fight goes beyond data. Earlier this year, the programmer discovered that a telecom company was injecting a Javascript, developed by an Israeli company, into the user’s browsing session. “While the code is harmless, the ultimate intention is to insert their ads into websites. The Israeli company had been known to do this in other countries,” he said.

The discovery led to both companies issuing notices to him. The issue was also raised in the Rajya Sabha.

Projects he is working on

Developing curriculum allowing data training in tier-II cities

Asking school managements to train children in using data

Improving garbage handling

Suggestions for government

Share data with the public

Share information gathered by ISRO and Survey of India

Suggestions for citizens

Talk to, coerce and gather data from local bodies

Ask why information is being kept private

Build pressure until RTI Act is changed to make it mandatory for the government to disclose data rather than disclose only on request