Analytics in India is Growing in All Directions

If we take a glance at the Analytics salary reports of 2017, we will see that the average wage if a big data professionals outshines the average wage for an IT professional by 30%. If that fails to suggest that the Indian analytics industry is having a run for the peak, nothing would. Analytics in India, as a term, has made a rather late entry but the industry is currently making amends for the lost time. The number of analytics firms in India has grown by 50% in the last two years. And the market is growing at a CAGR of 25%, promising to touch the $2 billion mark by 2018. So, if I claim that analytics in India is still at a nascent stage, nothing, it would seem, is farther away from the truth. But, indeed, if we consider the rate at which the number of connected devices, smart phone, users and internet users is growing, we will realize that Indian analytics industry has not reached half its potential. This is probably the most advantageous fact for the youngsters who strive to have an exciting career in this all pervasive stream of work.

India is often referred to as a talent-rich, cost efficient region. This is a true statement: given the lower level of life expectancy and low value of the rupee, it is ideally suited for European and American companies to outsource to India. This a system from which both the parties can prosper. An Indian analyst, working in an US company gathers valuable experience and earns a handsome salary. It often occurs that those Indian employees venture forth with their own startups; backed by the experience gathered in an overseas company. 80% of the Indian analytics workforce is currently working for foreign companies; abroad or in captive branches. While this sounds convenient enough, it does not sound very exciting nor does it give us any hope of a better future. Some good news then – The domestic analytics industry in India is growing at a much higher rate than the outsourced. It is growing at a yearly rate of 65% since 2015. The revenue from domestic companies is also high and growing higher with the ticking clock.

As far as employment is concerned, 50,000 skilled analytics professionals are working at the domestic companies while; while 200,000 people are working as outsourced employees. This ratio is also subject to drastic change as the market alters in the favour of the domestic industry. Thousands of startups kick start their business in India, every year. They all need analytics support in order to survive the competitive market. Amazon and Facebook have shown what can be achieved with analytics and Google, with its modified crawlers, is making the use of big data analytics an indispensable policy of business. In this situation all small and midsized enterprises are obliged to get a hang of their own data and inclusive information about their potential consumer base. But not all companies can handle or afford their own analytics teams, because big data talent comes at a high price. So, it is a window for new startups that provide analytics service to various companies. These service based analytics firms comprise most of India’s domestic analytics crowd. These firms are growing in number and employing a lot of young talents.

Analytics education in India has also taken many a positive turns since 2011. Institutes like AnalytixLabs have pioneered the mission of big data training in India. Gradually data science and analytics have been included in university curriculums. Machine Learning has ceased being an essentially academic subject and made its entry into the world of commerce, subsequently winning it completely. Online analytics training facilities have provided working professionals and students from different disciplines with an opportunity to learn and master analytics without hampering their usual schedule of work or study. As a result, the Indian analytics industry is on growing as a whole. New products are coming in from Indian developers. A lot of earnest effort is being put into the making of this scenario.

Skill gap is a serious issue around the world when it comes to big data analytics. India, in spite of, popularly, being talent-rich and as we all know highly populated, is not an exception when it comes to skill shortage in analytics. Experts predict a shortage of 100,000 skilled analysts in India by 2020. This should prompt the enthusiastic youngsters to make use of online analytics training facilities or classroom programmes to get ready for their window of opportunity.