Driving the Success of Digital India & e-Governance with Data Analytics

Data, an invaluable and infinite resource, is revolutionising the way industries, businesses and Governments are making decisions, unlocking new value and innovations, and providing enterprises the single biggest opportunity to serve their customers better.

Fuelled by heightened digitalization, India is witnessing an explosive growth in data. Further, an evolving business ecosystem and digital push by the Government through its Digital India initiative is enabling India to fast become one of the biggest Big Data Analytics markets in the world. According to Analytics India Magazine (AIM), the analytics industry in India is estimated to reach $118.7 billion by 2026¹.

The proliferation of big data ecosystem in India is opening up unprecedented opportunities for all to scale rapidly in this competitive digital age and enhance customer satisfaction.

Fuelling Data-Led Transformation of Businesses & Industries

Proving to be an invaluable asset in understanding customers better, businesses across industry verticals are digitally reinventing to become “Data First” and “AI First”.

The IT sector has been the biggest adopter of data analytics leveraging it to explore new product ideas and newer markets, drive business growth, and spearhead innovation for competitive advantage.

As India’s digital economy grows from strength to strength with increasing number of citizens turning to digital transactions, the Banking, Financial Services and Insurance (BFSI) industry is cashing in on data analytics to extract insights from the large volume of data being generated daily and deliver personalised services to the customer.

Meanwhile, healthcare professionals are utilizing data from Electronic Health Records and data from patient’s wearable health devices to provide improved patient care, detect early warning signs and prevent the onset of illnesses. Data Analytics is revolutionising the education sector too, empowering educators to monitor their students’ performance, evolve new pedagogies and personalised curriculum to enhance the student’s learning experience.

Strengthening Digital India, e-Governance for Citizen Empowerment

Recognising the value of data as a national resource, the Government of India is harnessing the same to build analytical frameworks and expand its e-Governance initiatives across the length and breadth of the country. Increasing smartphone penetration and data consumption, even in India’s hinterland, is enabling the Government to formulate evidence-based policies, better target welfare schemes for the undeserved population, and digitally empower citizens with data-driven inputs.

As a testimony to this, the Government has opted for geotagging the entire agriculture sector - the mainstay of India's economy and the major livelihood of millions – to make it more secure and profitable. Its powerful program, Forecasting of Agriculture outputs through Satellite, Agro-meteorology and Land-based observations (FASAL), utilises remote sensing and data analysis to enable farmers to predict the yield of major crops and thus increase their income for a better life.

Earlier in 2017, the Government leveraged big data analytics to launch an ambitious project called “Project Insights” which helped track down tax evaders and flag accounts with sizable black money deposits. Introduction of Goods & Services Tax (GST), one of the biggest reforms in the country's tax structure in decades, is also a shining example of data-driven policy.

Championing the democratic access to all public Government data through a one-stop platform, NITI Aayog’s flagship initiative “National Data and Analytics Platform” (NADP) will pave the way for India’s data stewardship. Catalysing this further, the Government's push for data localisation and the proposed national regulator, the Non-Personal Data Authority (NPDA), with a mission to "generate economic, social and public value through processing and use of data" will greatly strengthen India's data protection ecosystem.

Unlocking the Value of Data Through Robust Digital Platform

As India moves ahead on its Digital India and Smart Cities mission, it is likely to face the key challenge of pooling the voluminous data being collected from millions of IoT devices & smartphones and gleaning actionable insights from the same. Many State Governments are looking towards a powerful data analytics platform that can be used by all the Government departments to collate data, get real-time insights, and introduce policies that bridge the socio-economic disparities.

Hitachi is effectively meeting this need of enterprises and Government since 2016 through its own digital platform called “Lumada” that connects data, assets and people to unlock new value and growth opportunities. Integrating advanced Analytics, Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning into solution cores, Lumada is a proven service meeting India’s ever growing data analysis needs.