Why India is set to become the largest hub for analytics?

Businesses these days are facing increasing complexity and volatility with the availability of vast amount of data. Despite the gloom and doom situation prevailing in the IT sector, a large number of companies are turning to advanced analytics to manage, deal and understand data to gain actionable business insights.

The data and analytics market in India is undergoing a significant change. Indian companies have evinced keen interest in analytics and placed analytics as their numero uno priority for 2017. "The average commitment of top management in Indian companies towards the analytics is by far much higher than the global average." said Beatriz Sanz Saiz, Global Advisory Analytics Leader, EY. India currently ranks third in terms of analytics adoption worldwide.

Not just private organizations, the analytics wave is also embraced by government agencies and non-profit organizations. The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG), drafted a big data management policy last year for Indian audit and accounts departments to increase the use of data analysis in different functions.

The Indian analytics marker is currently pegged at US$2 billion and is growing at a healthy CAGR of 26%. The market is expected to reach US$16 billion by 2025. Nasscom anticipates the big data industry in India will occupy 32% of the global market by 2025. Retail and consumer, BFSI, manufacturing, and healthcare are the key contributors to the analytics market in the country.

While the picture looks quite promising, Indian companies feel that lack of skills is a major impediment in their analytics initiatives. There are currently 50,000 open positions for analytics in India. Moreover, analytics is yet to become a formal field to be taught in technology institutes as part of their full-time courses.

In view of this, Nasscom has proposed engineering institutes to upgrade curriculum to include big data and data analytics in their courses. On the same note, a Centre of Excellence was initiated to drive research in the analytics space and strengthen the ecosystem. The country contributes to 12% of all analytics and data science job openings globally. With a large pool of people with mathematics and programming background, India could become the largest hub for skills in big data and analytics.

Data analytics is becoming an integral part of organization's business strategy and the trend is expected to spread to more industries in the times ahead. The rise in data which stems from growing smartphone penetration is forcing organizations to delve deeply into consumer minds through machine learning techniques. Companies are now focusing on Internet of Things (IoT) data integrations and management to customize their product and service offerings. Indian IT giants such as Infosys, TCS, Wipro and Tech Mahindra have already infused significant money to step up their automation and AI platforms. This trend is not just limited to large multinationals. A website quotes a sum of US$210 being invested by start-up firms covering 20 deals in 2016.

Data analytics is slowly becoming embedded in a majority of organizations in India. The adoption is gradual but the time is not far when analytics will be seen as a key business differentiator in this highly competitive space. Organizations using analytics to data are twice more likely to outperform their peers. As India undergoes a rapid digital transformation, it will create myriad of opportunities to different companies globally and will metamorphose itself into the largest hub for analytics globally.