(This article forms a part of the Data Point newsletter curated by The Hindu’s Data team. To get the newsletter in your inbox, subscribe here.)
Welcome back, data enthusiasts!
In light of the upcoming Haryana Assembly elections slated for October 5, 2024, The Hindu Data Team carried a story on September 17, 2024, analysing the voting patterns of the rural and urban populations of the State. Using several choropleth maps as well as a table, we were able to execute the following:
Categorise Haryana’s 90 Assembly constituencies as rural, semi-rural, semi-urban, and urban.
Depict the constituencies with the highest increase in the number of electors from the 2014 Lok Sabha election to the 2024 general election, Concluding that electors in the urban seats surrounding Delhi have increased dramatically.
Show the vote share secured by the BJP and the INC in rural and urban seats over the past three general and Assembly elections.
Highlight the rural areas in Haryana where the ruling BJP’s recent move to lift export curbs on basmati rice may impact election results.
The issue
All the conclusions in this data story stem from the urban-rural classification of constituencies. But how do we classify them in the first place? Is constituency-wise Gross Domestic Product (GDP) a sufficient indicator?
However, GDP may not be the most accurate reflection of an area’s development, as that alone does not capture the multi-faceted nature of urbanity. Several other economic indicators also had similar drawbacks.
Moreover, no constituency-wise GDP data was available for the state of Haryana. In fact, political boundaries are not used to measure economic indicators; instead, administrative boundaries such as wards, districts, and States are utilised.
The solution
This is why The Hindu always uses the Night-Time Light data (NTL). This is a measure of the artificial illuminations at night and their brightness levels. Night light can be attributed to street lamps, vehicular headlights, factory and construction work, and more. The expanse of the night-time activity can indicate the extent of the economic activity in an area. Also, since this data is available in coarse detail, it can be aggregated to any level needed — assembly constituencies, parliamentary constituencies.
This idea is best expanded-upon in a research paper entitled “Night-time Light Data: A Good Measure for Economic Activity?” authored by Charlotta Mellander et al.
The U.S. Air Force’s Defense Meteorological Satellite Program/Operational Linescan System is the most widely acknowledged source of NTL data. This has been previously used to estimate population density, urban population size, and the GDP. The Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) instruments aboard the joint NASA/NOAA Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (Suomi NPP) and NOAA-20 satellites is also a good source to collect this data.
Our source for this article was an open-access data repository called Socioeconomic High-resolution Rural-Urban Geographic Platform for India (SHRUG), which is maintained by the Development Data Lab. The platform held data on India’s night-time activity from 1992 to 2021 based on both the sources quoted above.
Even better, SHRUG has aggregated the data not only for administrative boundaries but also for political boundaries, such as parliamentary and assembly constituencies. It serves as a one-stop shop by offering both a reliable source — nightlight data — to measure urbanity and providing it for political boundaries, making it ready for immediate analysis.
We took the annual mean luminosity of each assembly constituency in Haryana, as of 2021, and arranged them in descending order to determine the seats with the most economic activity, and tagged them accordingly as “urban”, “semi-urban”, “semi-rural”, and “rural”.
While you’re here, be sure to check out some of the other important stories we’ve published in recent weeks.
The battleground States that could decide the U.S. Presidential elections | Data
Why are the Presidential Election contests in the swing States in the U.S. so close? | Data
Haryana elections: SC seats hold key, as votes lost by BJP went to Congress in LS polls
Here are some important News in Numbers from last week
Palestinians killed in Gaza since October 7
41,272
The toll includes 20 deaths in the previous 24 hours, as of September 18, according to the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza. At least 95,551 people have been wounded in the Gaza Strip in the war between Israel and Palestinian militants, which is now in its 12th month.
Number of women-led MSMEs to benefit from CGTMSE scheme
27
In Lakh. Women-owned micro and small enterprises will get enhanced credit guarantee coverage of 90 per cent under the Credit Guarantee Fund Trust for Micro and Small Enterprises (CGTMSE), Union Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi said on Tuesday. This is expected to help women entrepreneurs access collateral free-credit from banks.
Rise in suicides among students in Odisha from 2021
58%
In per cent. In a written reply to BJD legislator Dhruba Charan Sahoo, the state’s chief minister said that the number of suicide cases among students has increased from 119 in 2021 to 173 in 2022 and then gone up to 189 in 2023. The state has witnessed more such cases among girl students than boys.
Percent of Amazon rainforest vital to climate left unprotected
40%
According to an analysis by the nonprofit Amazon Conservation, the Amazon rainforest most critical to curbing climate change has not been granted special government protection, as either nature or indigenous reserves
Published - September 20, 2024 05:13 pm IST
