Want to understand governance better? Check out these two apps aiming to simplify it all

Politics can often feel loud overwhelming and distant And digesting sweeping national debates can easily exhaust anyoneRecognising this two independent digital initiatives are bridging the gap By transforming dense government data and complex legislation into accessible tools these platforms are helping ordinary people stay informedCivic tech comes to your wardRealising that staying updated on politics and policies demands immense privilege and time 25yearold applied AI engineer Vaishnavi Sonawane decided to flip the scriptVaishnavi Sonawane built Aapka Mohalla a website and soontolaunch mobile app to make local governance bitesized accessible and tangibleInstead of asking citizens to stress over massive policy documents Sonawane wanted to create a bottomup approach that fits into daily routines ldquoMaybe somebody is just walking around going to their work school or on an evening walk they can just see the public facilities near them and maybe just take a picture and report on issues That is very doable That is very tangible and not at all stressfulrdquo Sonawane explainsAapka Mohallarsquos interfaceBut this is just one of the many features shersquos fit into Aapka Mohalla What the webapp does is essentially present itself as a onestop spot to know more about your local corporator the proposed or ongoing projects in your ward the facilities provided money spent and moreTo build this all in one place navigating official data proved to be a massive hurdle for Sonawane Sifting through the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation portal meant clicking through 500 hyperlinks Pointing out structural roadblocks Sonawane says ldquoEverything is technically public but itrsquos not really accessible in any shape or form So unless somebody is really resilient enough to click through 500 hyperlinks itrsquos very hard to find some of this informationrdquoVaishnavi Sonawane and Aabha MuralidharanTo unearth everything she spent hours manually processing 6200page corporator affidavits read through vague development vision plans and found anomalies ldquoThere are corporators in their 50s but they have graduated class 12 only a year before the election Itrsquos oddhelliprdquoSonawane has also built the website and app entirely out of her own pocket with software and server costs draining her dayjob salary But she refuses to seek funding from any sources that could compromise data transparencyHer vision extends beyond mere app downloads By introducing weekly ward walks open dialogues and hyperlocal heat maps of actual citizen demands she wants local politics to feel less like a source of anxiety and more like a vibrant communal neighborhood activity where real tangible change happens Sonawane who has worked on this project since November 2025 has now found a few volunteers willing to help build and maintain the webapp This is of course thanks to the videos she has been posting on her Instagram account to promote and make people aware of her projectSoon she hopes to seek help from local journalists and other volunteers to expand the project to more citiesTo access aapkamohallacomMapping the lawsAnother initiative is decoding the fine print of national legislation Called the Legal Atlas it is built by the hybrid research and journalism organisation The Polis ProjectLed by lead researcher Aabha Muralidharan alongside a dedicated team including founder Suchitra Vijayan researcher Raaz and data consultant and developer Andrew Pavamani the platform maps where state power is shiftingThe interface of the website Legal AtlasUnderstanding new laws is notoriously difficult As Muralidharan explains official documents are intentionally banal and boring ldquoFor a layman as a citizen these documents can come off as very boring In the sense they may seem very banal You may not understand what the law is actually doingrdquo she saysThe Legal Atlas cuts through this confusion by analysing bills through tracking legal insertions omissions and substitutions against parliamentary debates and ground realitiesInstead of treating laws as isolated legal texts the platform maps them through a rigorous methodology Visitors to the website can explore structured themes and curated trends that expose how state power shifts across sectors like criminal law environmental regulations and civil libertiesUsers can navigate the platform by examining these core thematic breakdowns and reading clear descriptions allowing common citizens to connect the dots between seemingly unrelated laws and understand their direct impact on daily lifeldquoThe intention has always been to place this information in the hands of ordinary citizensrdquo Muralidharan saysrdquoIf there are people for example if today there are trans community members who are being excluded and in one sense who are being made stateless if they are able to make connections between multiple laws and then understand why the food is not arriving on their table if that is something that the Legal Atlas can do then I think our job is mostly donerdquoTo access thepolisprojectcomresearchlegalatlas