Though there are around 45,000 open positions for data scientists in India many of them are not being filled due to a dearth of skilled data scientists available in the country. MNCs, Indian companies, services companies are all looking out for data scientists but are finding it challenging to find appropriate people to fill in the slots. However, interestingly out of the total technological development work around data analytics happening globally, 42 per cent of it happens out of India. Globally 29 per cent of the top Fortune 500 companies now have a positions of a chief data scientist. These observations were made by Pinkesh Shah, the Chief Executive Officer of Bengaluru based Institute of Product Leadership (IPL). Shah was speaking to THE WEEK on the sidelines of the Data Science Summit 2018 organised by the institute in the IT city.
Shah further pointed out that though data was available say a decade back too but there were no appropriate systems to store and manage this huge chunk of data. “In the present time though computing power and data management is available, there are specialists who are required to mine and analyse this data. It is becoming significant day by day for companies as decision making based on data is crucial for companies as one wrong decision can affect the revenues of a company straightaway hitting their bottom lines. During last few years, India has had more than 300 specialists in the field of data analytics who have developed their data skill sets abroad. Data needs to be captured and analysed very systematically on a real time basis. Business decisions based upon dynamic pricing and visualizing the impact on the future course of a business can be very well based on data analytics,” Shah told THE WEEK.
During the data summit, the IPL unveiled an App, ‘Data Science Aptitude Assessment’ that is available to all Android users on its website. This aims to benefit organizations to determine which employees among the current workforce have a more evolved aptitude for data science. The app provides an overall score and individual scores in the five aptitude areas, including Quantitative Aptitude, Statistical Aptitude, Analytical and Critical Thinking, Curiosity and Exploration Inventory and Data Science Awareness.
A score of 8 or more is considered high, while 6-8 is considered medium and a score of less than 6 is considered low. The app can help an organization know the potential of a candidate in learning data science, and also lets the candidate assess their own readiness and aptitude for learning the subject.
“Not everyone has to become a data scientist, but we certainly believe that every professional who is engaged in customer and business driven innovation should become data science savvy,” added Shah.
The day long summit provided a platform for those working in the field of data science and those passionate about the subject, to network with more than 300 professionals and 25 executive leaders from the top companies work in the field of data science and Artificial Intelligence (AI).