Chennai: India’s Advanced Analytics talent pool will see a three-fold growth in just two years, growing to two lakh in 2020 from 65,000 in 2018, said a report.
It will contribute to a large part of the global supply boom, said Bain & Company in its report titled “The Indian Equation for Advanced Analytics Talent”, released on Wednesday.
Globally, the advanced analytics talent pool is expected to reach one million during that period, double that of 2018 levels.
“Today, we are in the midst of an explosion in data and analytics, and India has a unique opportunity to become a critical analytics hub for both domestic and global companies and a global leader if educators, business and regulators solve some key challenges,” the report said.
The report identified two trends that are simultaneously expanding the talent pool in India – rapid influx of graduates with data and analytical skills joining the workforce, India existing ecosystem in information technology, especially in programming and systems integration.
With only 30 per cent of companies globally, fully integrated in advanced analytics, India has one additional asset – its well-established centres of excellence in digital platforms and ecosystems in Hyderabad and Bangalore which is home to companies such as Flipkart, Ola, Paytm and Swiggy, besides Amazon.in, Google India and Facebook India, said the report.
According to the report, India must not only add individuals with advanced analytics skills, but also develop true depth of expertise. It added that it helped that the 2018–19 budget doubled Digital India’s allocation to more than $4 billion, and a new programme focused on artificial intelligence was introduced.
Venture capital investment, which have begun to fund the sector, will also strengthen India’s analytics ecosystem, it said.
Arpan Sheth, partner, Bain & Company, said, “India has the potential to cement itself as the dominant global provider of advanced analytics expertise by focusing on data security and privacy. With new data protection regulations in place in Europe and coming soon to California and other jurisdictions, India has an opportunity to take the lead by setting standards for data use and curation, and for how analytics is delivered. The first step is for India’s analytics industry, in conjunction with the government, to adopt data security protocols, standards and certification to minimise risk of data misuse and breaches in security and privacy.”