Tool
Tools
Software you run to do a job.
- Alar
V. Krishna's open-source Kannada-English dictionary — 247K entries with full-text search, built by Zerodha's tech team and freely accessible to all
Tool Culture & heritageTechnology India, Karnataka
Go straight to Alar - Alaveteli
Open-source Freedom of Information platform by mySociety that powers public Right to Information request portals across 25+ countries
Tool TransparencyGovernance Global, India
Go straight to Alaveteli - Aleph
Open-source investigative data search and cross-referencing engine for tracking corruption, corporate registries, and leaked records
Tool TransparencyLaw & policing Global, India
Go straight to Aleph - Allmaps
Open-source web platform for georeferencing, curating, and overlaying high-resolution historical maps from digital library IIIF repositories
Tool Culture & heritageTechnology Global, India
Go straight to Allmaps - AnyDoc
Convert Word, PowerPoint, Excel, OpenDocument, RTF, EPUB, CSV, and PDF to clean Markdown — built in Rust with Node.js and Python bindings, 8K+ GitHub stars
Tool Technology Global
Go straight to AnyDoc - Apache Superset
Open-source data exploration and visualization platform for querying databases and building interactive, shareable public dashboards
Tool TechnologyTransparency Global, India
Go straight to Apache Superset - ASReview
Open-source active-learning software that helps researchers screen large collections of papers for systematic reviews
Tool TechnologyEducation Global, India
Go straight to ASReview - Avni
Open-source field service and data collection for community programmes — designed for Indian nonprofits with offline-first mobile apps and longitudinal tracking
Tool HealthEducation India
Go straight to Avni - BharatViz
Free, open-source tool that turns a two-column CSV into a clean state or district choropleth map of India
Tool GovernanceDemography India
Go straight to BharatViz - Camelot
Open-source Python library for extracting structured tables from text PDFs into Pandas DataFrames, CSV, and Excel
Tool TechnologyGovernance Global, India
Go straight to Camelot - CARE
Open digital public good for managing healthcare facilities, patient records, critical care and distributed public-health operations
Tool HealthTechnology India, Global
Go straight to CARE - censusindia
R package with digitised Census of India data from 1901 to 2011 at state, district and subdistrict level, ready to map
Tool DemographyCaste India
Go straight to censusindia - Chatwoot
Open-source omnichannel customer support and helpdesk platform integrating WhatsApp, email, live chat, and SMS in a unified inbox
Tool TechnologyMedia Global, India
Go straight to Chatwoot - CiviCRM
Open-source constituent relationship management for nonprofits — manage donors, members, events, campaigns, and casework, used by 14,000+ organisations
Tool TechnologyGovernance Global, India
Go straight to CiviCRM - CKAN
The open-source data portal behind data.gov.in and hundreds of government portals — publish, manage, and share datasets with APIs and rich metadata
Tool TechnologyGovernance Global, India
Go straight to CKAN - Consul Democracy
Open-source citizen participation platform for citizen proposals, participatory budgeting, public debates, and collaborative legislation
Tool GovernanceTransparency Global, India
Go straight to Consul Democracy - D3.js & Observable Plot
The foundational open-source JavaScript libraries for data visualisation — D3 for bespoke interactive graphics, Observable Plot for quick exploratory charts
Tool TechnologyMedia Global
Go straight to D3.js & Observable Plot - Dalgo
Open-source data platform helping nonprofits consolidate programme data, automate transformations and produce dependable reporting
Tool TechnologyGovernance India, Global
Go straight to Dalgo - Datasette
Open-source tool for exploring structured data and publishing it as a searchable website with a documented JSON API
Tool TechnologyTransparency Global, India
Go straight to Datasette - Datawrapper
Create charts, maps, and tables for the web — the tool behind most data journalism graphics, with a generous free tier for newsrooms and nonprofits
Tool MediaTechnology Global, India
Go straight to Datawrapper - Decidim
Open-source digital citizen participation and participatory democracy platform for consultations, voting, assemblies, and participatory budgeting
Tool GovernanceTransparency Global, India
Go straight to Decidim - DIGIT
Open-source digital infrastructure for governments to build interoperable public services, registries and administrative workflows
Tool GovernanceTechnology India, Global
Go straight to DIGIT - Discourse
Modern open-source forum and community platform — the standard for online discussion, used by thousands of communities and Indian civic groups
Tool Technology Global, India
Go straight to Discourse - Docmost
Open-source, self-hosted collaborative wiki and documentation workspace for research teams and non-profit knowledge bases
Tool Technology Global, India
Go straight to Docmost - DSpace
Open-source digital repository platform — the standard for institutional archives, used by 3,000+ universities and research organisations worldwide
Tool EducationTechnology Global, India
Go straight to DSpace - DuckDB
Fast, in-process analytical SQL database engine for querying large CSV, Parquet, and JSON datasets locally without server infrastructure
Tool Technology Global, India
Go straight to DuckDB - ezesri
Python toolkit, CLI, and web app for extracting features from Esri REST APIs and searching 24,000+ public government GIS layers
Tool TechnologyGovernance Global, India
Go straight to ezesri - Flint Chart
Microsoft's open-source visualisation language for the AI era — lets AI agents reliably create expressive, good-looking charts from simple human-editable specs
Tool TechnologyMedia Global
Go straight to Flint Chart - Flourish
Create animated, interactive data visualisations and stories — bar races, network graphs, 3D maps, with a generous free tier for journalism and nonprofits
Tool MediaTechnology Global, India
Go straight to Flourish - Frappe
Open-source software company behind ERPNext and Frappe Framework — the most widely used FOSS ERP, deployed by businesses, nonprofits, and governments worldwide
Tool TechnologyLabour Global, India
Go straight to Frappe - GDAL
The foundational library for geospatial data conversion — translate between any GIS format, reproject coordinates, and process raster/vector data at scale
Tool TechnologyLand Global, India
Go straight to GDAL - GeoJSON Map Viewer
Browser-based OpenStreetMap tool for inspecting, styling, compositing, and exporting multi-layer GeoJSON vectors as PNGs
Tool TechnologyCities Global
Go straight to GeoJSON Map Viewer - GeoLibre
Free, private-by-design GIS for visualising, editing, and analysing geospatial data across browsers, desktops, mobile, and Jupyter
Tool TechnologyLand Global
Go straight to GeoLibre - Gephi
Open-source network analysis and visualisation — explore connections in social networks, organisational relationships, trade flows, and citation patterns
Tool Technology Global, India
Go straight to Gephi - Ghost
Open-source publishing and newsletter platform for independent journalists, policy publications, and research collectives
Tool MediaTechnology Global, India
Go straight to Ghost - Glific
Open-source WhatsApp platform for nonprofits — two-way messaging, chatbots, and programme management on the channel beneficiaries already use
Tool TechnologyHealth India
Go straight to Glific - Google Earth Engine
Planetary-scale cloud computing platform pairing a 90+ petabyte Earth observation catalog with parallel geospatial analysis APIs
Tool EnvironmentTechnology Global, India
Go straight to Google Earth Engine - IDLI Stack
Managed hosting for open-source tools built for Indian nonprofits — one-click deployment of ERPNext, chat, fundraising, and more without server headaches
Tool TechnologyGovernance India
Go straight to IDLI Stack - janapada
Interactive map and toolkit tracing how India's districts split, merged and were renamed from 1951 to 2024
Tool GovernanceDemography India
Go straight to janapada - Jupyter
Free, open-source interactive computing platform — create documents with live code, equations, visualisations, and narrative text, the standard for data science
Tool TechnologyEducation Global, India
Go straight to Jupyter - Kepler.gl
Powerful open-source geospatial visualisation tool — drag-and-drop millions of points and create beautiful interactive maps in the browser, no code required
Tool CitiesTechnology Global, India
Go straight to Kepler.gl - KoboToolbox
Open-source field data collection that works offline on cheap phones, widely used for humanitarian and survey work
Tool TechnologyHealth Global
Go straight to KoboToolbox - LiteParse
Fast, helpful, open-source document parser from LlamaIndex — extracts structured text from PDFs, Word, and other formats with high accuracy for LLM pipelines
Tool Technology Global
Go straight to LiteParse - Mapeo
Free offline-first mapping toolset designed with Indigenous communities for locally controlled territorial documentation
Tool TechnologyLand Global
Go straight to Mapeo - MapLibre GL
Community-led open-source mapping engine for rendering interactive vector tile maps on web and mobile devices
Tool Technology Global, India
Go straight to MapLibre GL - Mathesar
Open-source spreadsheet-like interface for non-technical teams to edit, explore, query and collaborate on PostgreSQL data
Tool Technology Global, India
Go straight to Mathesar - Maxun
Open-source no-code web extraction platform for turning websites into structured datasets, scheduled workflows and APIs
Tool TechnologyTransparency Global, India
Go straight to Maxun - Metabase
Open-source business intelligence tool that lets team members ask questions and build dashboards from SQL databases without code
Tool Technology Global, India
Go straight to Metabase - mospiR
R client for the MoSPI Microdata Portal that searches and downloads NSS, PLFS, ASI, HCES and other survey unit-level data
Tool EconomyLabour India
Go straight to mospiR - NASA Worldview
Interactive browser for over 1,000 global satellite imagery layers, updated within hours of observation, nearly 30 years back
Tool EnvironmentClimate Global
Go straight to NASA Worldview - NVIDIA Parakeet
Fast, locally runnable speech-to-text models for transcribing interviews, meetings and recordings with punctuation and timestamps
Tool TechnologyMedia Global, India
Go straight to NVIDIA Parakeet - ODK (Open Data Kit)
The open-source foundation for mobile data collection — build forms, collect offline on Android, and manage submissions, used by field teams worldwide
Tool TechnologyHealth Global, India
Go straight to ODK (Open Data Kit) - Online RTI Automation
AI-driven workflow automating Right to Information filings on Central and Karnataka portals using Claude Code and Playwright
Tool GovernanceTransparency India, Karnataka
Go straight to Online RTI Automation - OpenEcon.ai
Open-source AI tools and MCP servers connecting assistants to 330,000+ economic indicators, Stata, MATLAB, and academic writing workflows
Tool EconomyTechnology Global
Go straight to OpenEcon.ai - OpenRefine
Powerful free tool for cleaning messy data — transform, reconcile, and extend datasets with web services, essential for government spreadsheet work
Tool Technology Global, India
Go straight to OpenRefine - OpenSpeaks Tools
Offline-oriented tools for subtitling, organising media and documenting oral knowledge in Indigenous and low-resourced languages
Tool Culture & heritageTechnology India, Global
Go straight to OpenSpeaks Tools - OpenTripPlanner
Open-source multimodal transit routing engine combining OpenStreetMap road networks and GTFS transit schedules for journey planning and transit analysis
Tool TransportCities Global, India
Go straight to OpenTripPlanner - Overpass Turbo
Web-based query tool for OpenStreetMap — run spatial queries like 'all hospitals in Bangalore' or 'all water bodies in this district' and export as GeoJSON
Tool CitiesTechnology Global, India
Go straight to Overpass Turbo - Paperless-ngx
Open-source document management system that transforms physical scans and digital documents into a searchable archive with OCR and automated tagging
Tool TechnologyTransparency Global, India
Go straight to Paperless-ngx - ParliamentWatch
Search, extract, download and track Indian Parliamentary Committee reports, with optional summaries and publication alerts
Tool GovernanceTransparency India
Go straight to ParliamentWatch - PDF Inspector
Open-source PDF structure visualisation — inspect text blocks, images, and metadata inside any PDF, essential for debugging document parsing
Tool Technology Global
Go straight to PDF Inspector - Public Finance Playground
Interactive tools for exploring India's Union tax allocation, subnational fiscal indicators, and structured nine-dimension budget analysis
Tool Public financeGovernance India
Go straight to Public Finance Playground - QGIS
The standard open-source desktop GIS — full-featured spatial analysis, map-making, and geodata processing, free and cross-platform, with a vast plugin ecosystem
Tool LandCities Global, India
Go straight to QGIS - Quarto
Open-source publishing system for reproducible reports, policy briefs, presentations, dashboards, websites and books
Tool TechnologyEducation Global, India
Go straight to Quarto - Quartz
Batteries-included static site generator turning Markdown folders into websites — the standard for publishing digital gardens and knowledge bases
Tool TechnologyEducation Global
Go straight to Quartz - RapidPro
Open-source visual workflow engine by UNICEF for building multi-channel messaging bots and surveys across SMS, WhatsApp, and Telegram
Tool TechnologyHealth Global, India
Go straight to RapidPro - srsindia
R package that turns India's Sample Registration System reports into tidy tables of life tables, causes of death and vital rates
Tool DemographyHealth India
Go straight to srsindia - Stirling PDF
All-in-one open-source PDF manipulation toolkit — merge, split, compress, OCR, convert, sign, and dozens more operations through a simple web interface
Tool Technology Global, India
Go straight to Stirling PDF - svara-TTS
Open-source multilingual text-to-speech model for Indian languages, enabling natural voice synthesis across regional languages and dialects
Tool TechnologyCulture & heritage India, Global
Go straight to svara-TTS - Tabula
Extract tables from PDFs into CSV or Excel — the essential first step for working with Indian government data locked inside PDF reports
Tool TechnologyGovernance Global, India
Go straight to Tabula - Taguette
Free qualitative research software for highlighting and coding documents, collaborating on analysis and exporting findings
Tool TechnologyEducation Global, India
Go straight to Taguette - Tella
Secure documentation app for human rights — encrypt photos, videos, and audio on mobile, with camouflage features for high-risk environments
Tool RightsTechnology Global, India
Go straight to Tella - Tesseract OCR
Open-source optical character recognition engine supporting over 100 languages, widely used to extract text from scanned documents and PDFs
Tool Technology Global, India
Go straight to Tesseract OCR - uMap
Create custom interactive maps with OpenStreetMap layers in minutes — no coding, just drop data, style, and embed anywhere
Tool CitiesTechnology Global, India
Go straight to uMap - Uwazi
Open-source evidence database for organising, connecting, analysing and publishing human-rights documents and records
Tool RightsLaw & policing Global, India
Go straight to Uwazi - Varunayan
Open Python and R toolkit for downloading ERA5 and IMD climate data for any region and computing heat stress indices
Tool ClimateHealth India, Global
Go straight to Varunayan - Whatomate
Open-source, self-hosted WhatsApp communication platform with visual node-based IVR, call recording, and automated messaging workflows
Tool TechnologyMedia Global, India
Go straight to Whatomate - Zotero
Free, open-source reference manager — collect, organise, cite, and share research sources, with browser integration and collaborative group libraries
Tool EducationTechnology Global, India
Go straight to Zotero - Zulip
Open-source, topic-based threaded team chat platform designed to organize conversations and prevent information loss in distributed teams
Tool TechnologyMedia Global, India
Go straight to Zulip