Skip to content

Open Government Data (OGD) Platform India

data.gov.in

The single largest repository of Indian government data — your first stop for any data search.

Provider
MeitY (Ministry of Electronics & IT)
Website
data.gov.in
Access Level
🟢 No Login Needed
Formats Available
CSV, JSON, XML, ODS, PDF
Coverage
National to Village Level
Total Datasets
5,00,000+ catalogued resources

What Is data.gov.in?

Launched in 2012 under the National Data Sharing and Accessibility Policy (NDSAP), data.gov.in is India's central open data portal. It aggregates datasets from:

  • Central Government Ministries & Departments
  • State Governments and UTs
  • Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs)
  • Autonomous bodies and regulators

Think of it as a Google Search for government data — it doesn't store all the data itself, but it indexes and provides access to datasets from hundreds of sources.

What Data Is Available?

data.gov.in covers virtually every sector of government:

  • Crop area, production, and yield by district
  • Minimum Support Price (MSP) data
  • Agricultural census data
  • Horticulture statistics
  • Hospital and health infrastructure
  • Disease surveillance data
  • Immunisation coverage
  • HMIS monthly reports
  • School-level enrollment and dropout data
  • Teacher-pupil ratios by district
  • Higher education statistics (AISHE)
  • Road length by type (NH, SH, Rural)
  • Railway network data
  • Village electrification status
  • Drinking water coverage
  • Annual Survey of Industries
  • State GDP data
  • Bank branch data (RBI)
  • Aadhaar enrolment statistics
  • Census tables (Primary Census Abstracts)
  • Village directory data
  • Migration data
  • Workers classification

How to Access Data: Step by Step

Method 1: Browse & Download (Easiest)

  1. Visit https://data.gov.in

  2. Search using keywords (e.g., "district population" or "Maharashtra schools")

  3. Filter results using:

  4. Sector: Agriculture, Health, Education, etc.
  5. State: Choose your state
  6. Organization: Ministry or department

  7. Format: CSV, JSON, etc.

  8. Click on a dataset to see its details

  9. Download: Click the Download button → Choose format (CSV recommended)

Best Search Tips

  • Use short, specific terms: "rainfall district" not "monthly average rainfall data across districts"
  • Filter by Format: CSV to find machine-readable data
  • Sort by "Most Recent" to get up-to-date datasets

Method 2: API Access (For Developers)

data.gov.in provides a REST API to access datasets programmatically.

Step 1: Get an API key (free registration required) - Go to https://data.gov.in/user/register - Register with email - Go to your profile → "API Keys" → Generate key

Step 2: Use the API

import requests

# Replace with your API key
API_KEY = "your-api-key-here"

# Example: Fetch district population data
resource_id = "6176ee09-3d56-4a3b-8115-21841576b2f6"
url = f"https://api.data.gov.in/resource/{resource_id}"

params = {
    "api-key": API_KEY,
    "format": "json",
    "offset": 0,
    "limit": 100,
    "filters[State]": "Maharashtra"   # Optional filter
}

response = requests.get(url, params=params)
data = response.json()

print(f"Total records: {data['total']}")
for record in data['records'][:5]:
    print(record)

Step 3: The response comes in JSON format: 

{
  "total": 640,
  "records": [
    {
      "state": "Maharashtra",
      "district": "Pune",
      "population": 9429408
    },
    ...
  ]
}

Key Datasets to Find on data.gov.in

Dataset Name Sector Search Term Format
District-wise Population (Census) Population "district census population" CSV
Village Directory Boundaries "village directory" CSV
Agricultural Census Agriculture "agricultural census 2015" CSV
School Report Card (DISE) Education "school report card" CSV
State-wise Rainfall Agriculture/Climate "state rainfall monthly" CSV
Number of Health Facilities Health "health facilities district" CSV
SC/ST Population by District Population "scheduled caste population" CSV
MGNREGA Employment Data Rural Development "mgnrega employment" CSV

What's Unique About data.gov.in?

Indian State Government Portals

Many state governments have their own data portals. data.gov.in aggregates some of this, but for state-specific deep data, also check:

State Portal
Maharashtra mahadbt.maharashtra.gov.in
Kerala kerala.gov.in/open-data
Karnataka data.karnataka.gov.in
Tamil Nadu data.tn.gov.in
Delhi delhi.gov.in

Common Issues and Solutions

Problem Solution
Dataset link gives 404 error Search for the dataset again — it may have moved. Check NWIC or IndiaDataPortal for archived versions.
CSV file opens garbled in Excel Open Excel → Data → From Text → Choose "UTF-8" encoding
Dataset is in Hindi/regional language Use Google Translate on the browser, or find the English version of the portal
API returns empty results Check your API key is active. Try without filters first.
File size too large to open Split using Python: pd.read_csv("file.csv", chunksize=10000)

✏️ Practice Exercise

Exercise 1.1 — Search and Download Your District's Data

Goal: Find and download a dataset about your home district.

Time needed: 15 minutes

  1. Go to data.gov.in
  2. Search for: "[Your District Name] population"
    (e.g., "Pune population" or "Nashik schools")
  3. Download a CSV file
  4. Open it in Excel or Google Sheets

  5. Answer these questions:

  6. What time period does the data cover?

  7. What is the most interesting column in this dataset?
  8. Is data available at village level or only district level?

Bonus: Use Python to read the same file: 

import pandas as pd
df = pd.read_csv('your_downloaded_file.csv')
print(df.head())
print(df.shape)   # Number of rows and columns

Next Dataset: OpenStreetMap India →