--- title: "HSG entrepreneurship researchers use satellite data to study informal entrepreneurship in Indian slums; maps informal economies at scale." sdDatePublished: "2026-08-04T09:10:00Z" source: "https://www.unisg.ch/en/newsroom/hsg-entrepreneurship-researchers-leverage-satellite-data-for-complex-investigations/" topics: - name: "environment" identifier: "medtop:06000000" - name: "economy" identifier: "medtop:20000344" locations: - "St. Gallen" - "Shillong" - "Shahdara" - "Madhya Pradesh" - "Switzerland" - "China" - "India" --- HSG entrepreneurship researchers use satellite data to study informal entrepreneurship in Indian slums; maps informal economies at scale. HSG entrepreneurship researchers leverage satellite data for complex investigations Back Research - 04.08.2026 - 09:45 HSG entrepreneurship researchers leverage satellite data for complex investigations When it comes to research into sensitive and complex topics, data is often lacking because governments and companies are unwilling or unable to make it available. A team of HSG researchers is therefore using satellite data to investigate various social, environmental and economic issues. Their most recent research explores informal entrepreneurship in Indian slums. Why HSG? Why HSG? 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Tricks to stay in power: A critical look at electoral reforms The future of Swiss hospital planning HSG doctorate as a training programme in anti-fragility Algorithm on X effects political views in the USA Ein Blick hinter die Kulissen der Münchner Sicherheitskonferenz Research - 04.08.2026 - 09:45 Up-to-date and unbiased data on economic, social and environmental issues can be difficult to obtain. A team of researchers at the Institute of Responsible Innovation, Sustainability and Energy of the University of St.Gallen (RISE-HSG) has therefore been harnessing satellite data to close knowledge gaps in entrepreneurship research. Exploring complex topics with satellite data With the help of satellite data, Prof. Dr. Charlotta Sirén, Associate Professor at RISE-HSG, and her team have developed insights into issues that are often hard to investigate, because they confront vested interests or because logistical difficulties prevent the timely availability of data. While their previous projects examined the effects of the Covid crisis on economic activity in China as well as the unintended consequences of palm oil certificates , their most recent research explores the impact of governmental interventions on informal entrepreneurship in Indian slums . Accessing reliable data for investigations on such potentially contentious topics can be a great challenge: “With all of these projects, we are tapping into sensitive issues in the sense that either data do not exist or companies are not willing to reveal data”, Sirén notes. For example, why would a palm oil company investing into becoming compliant with sustainability certificates provide data that may contradict the labels’ intended impact? But the problem is not limited to businesses: “Even with government statistics, they are not always reliable because the incentives to not report reliable numbers are quite high. For example, India is not reporting how many slums they have. Or we know from China that they needed to revise some of their GDP measures because they inflated the numbers some years ago”, she explains. Logistics, time and space are other challenges where satellite data can bring real advantages. While it can take years to collect and compile data on demographic, economic or social developments in a country, satellite data can be made available on a near-daily basis. Sirén illustrates the problem: “For government statistics, you might get them once a year or once in five years. But the world is living now. With satellite data, you can capture what happens almost daily or weekly.” In addition, data collection with conventional methods over large geographical areas is prone to errors due to the complex logistics involved. Dr. Michael Hudecheck, a postdoctoral researcher at RISE-HSG, explains: “One of the problems that the Indian federal government has is the fact that the information they have is reported by the individual states. And of course, there's always an open question about what is actually happening on the ground and whether or not the data is actually accurate”. A matter of costs and ethics Non-commercial satellite data is also inexpensive. It is freely available through publ