Seeding data at Dalasanur village in Kolar on a Monday morning

India’s demographic dividend today – 40% of its population under 18 years – is set to become a healthcare burden over the next few decades as the country ages. By 2050, India’s population older than 60 years will cross 300 million by 2050, trebling from 104 million in 2011, according to a UN Population Fund report.
FactorDaily photojournalist and video producer Rajesh Subramanian reports from Dalasanur village in Srinivasapura taluk of Kolar district in Karnataka of a project that aims to map 10,000 Indians as they age. Data on biological and psychological changes in the elderly, gene profiles, and other data will be collected over the next few decades in a multi-generational study called Srinivasapura Ageing Senescence and Cognition (SANSCOG).
The expectation is that the massive data pool will help data scientists create models, predictors, and algorithms. This, in turn, will potentially help pharma companies take a crack at mental conditions such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s, among others, for which drugs have not been developed despite nearly a 100 years of research. Also benefitting from the open data project will be insurance and healthcare companies.
Here are 11 of Subramanian’s best pictures from a four-hour reporting assignment on Monday, November 20 in Kolar.