Analytics and Agriculture

Agriculture drives the Indian economy with a whopping population of nearly 70% in rural areas and 40% being part of the agricultural workforce. However, it has many issues and hurdles in realizing its full potential and leveraging analytics and technology for it. The sector lacks banking, financial, disaster management, and water inadequacy facilities and infrastructure. Also due to lack of education migration to cities is a major issue. Though in the early stages the policymakers were quick to realize the potential of analytics and technology in mitigating the hardships of farmers and slowly but steadily the combination is appearing to slow down and address the agriculture segment pressing issues.

Use of Big Data Analytics:

Data is the life breath of all activities in modern times and in agriculture too. Leveraging the potential of analytics and Big Data can bring about immense changes in agriculture and its productivity. The frequent news-releases on droughts, crop failures, farmer suicides and such acute results of backward farming and agriculture stresses the need for the involvement of technology and big data in improving the lot of the farmers and agriculture segment. Be it crop patterns, wind directions, crop loss mitigation, soil adequacy, and fertility, it is Big Data analytics that has offered solutions using technologies like

Cloud and Nanocomputing
Big data, digitalization and visualization use.
AI, IoT and ML use.
Saas Platforms, cloud services, and web-based apps.
Role of data and the data analyst:
Agriculture is interdisciplinary and combines concepts of business management, chemistry, mathematics, statistics, physics, economics, and biology. Like all interdisciplinary sectors, the need for data and its use is crucial for growth, change, and development. This means that like in other segments the data analyst role is both well-paying, has an unending scope and relies on a variety of latest futuristic technologies and smart apps.

Knowledge of sciences, agriculture methods, biotechnology, animal and soil sciences, etc will definitely aid the analyst. The analyst will also need proficiency in analysis techniques, data prepping and predictive analysis.

Analytical technologies in the agriculture sector can be used effectively in

Capturing data
: using the IoT, biometrics, sensors, genotyping, open and other kinds of data, etc.
Storage of Data: using data lakes, Hadoop systems, Clouds, Hybrid files and storage, etc.
Transfer of Data: via wireless and wifi, linked free and open source data, cloud-based solutions, etc.
Analytics and Transformation of data: through ML algorithms, normalization, computing cognitively, yield models, planting solutions, benchmarks, etc.
Marketing of data and its visualization.
What is Smart Farming?
Smart Farming uses analytics, IoT, Big Data and ML to combine technology and agriculture applications. Farming solutions also offer

ML and data visualization techniques.
App-based integration for data extraction and education.
Monitoring through drones and satellites.
Cloud storage for securing large volumes of data.
Smart Farming technologies and analytics can thus be efficiently used for forecasts, predictions for better crop harvests, risk mitigation, and management, harvest predictions, maximizing crop quality, liaising and interconnectivity with seed manufacturers, banks, insurers, and government bodies.

What is Precision Agriculture?
This methodology is about Crop Management which is site-specific and also called ‘Farming using Satellites’. The information from satellites helps distill data regarding topography, resources, water availability, the fertility of the soil, nitrogen, moisture and organic matter levels, etc which are accurately measured and observed for a specific location or field. Thus an increase in ROI and optimization of resources is possible through satellite aided analytics. Other devices like drones, image files from satellites, sensors, GPS devices, and many more can prove to be helpful aids and are fast becoming popular.

Concluding with the challenges:
Though the technologies are the best the implementation and applications to the agriculture sector are lacking. Education and training of the farmers is the best solution but involves a lot of man-hours, uninterrupted power, use of data efficiently, internet connectivity, and finance to help these measures succeed and develop to their full potential. Right now it is in the nascent stage and the need for data analysts is very high. To get the best skill development training courses in data analytics do try Imarticus Learning which is a highly recommended player with efficient, practical skill-oriented training and assured placements as a bonus. Where there is a will the way will show up on its own. Hurry and enroll.

How Analytics is Helping Law Enforcement Prevent Crime?

Spiralling rates of crimes is a deterrent to national growth, especially in the developing Indian economy. It impacts investments, tourism, and perceptions of growth both nationally and internationally thus impacting the stock markets too.

The need for constant analysis, regulation of and monitoring of crimes is the bounden duty of the government and the police. Analytics can prove to be the tool to effectively maintain order and law in India while also providing for safe tourism and image building as a strong and safe economy.

Data Analytics can help in crime detection, deriving suitable measures, actions, and conclusions and thus suggest and forecast necessary governmental measures for crime prevention. The field of analytics of crimes uses techniques and tools of statistical analysis which helps use the data available to detect and resolve crimes quickly. They can also be used in prosecution, evaluation of crime prevention measures, analysis and patterns of victims, criminals, modus operandi, traffic problems, the internal functioning of police departments, patrolling and strategizing.

Some of the ways in which the Indian police are making use of the advancements in technology and analytics capabilities are discussed briefly below.

The volumes of Big Data generated is stored for 28 years by the NCRB and runs into several petabytes of data in the form of audio clips, videos, text and chat files, footage from CCTV cameras, location files with GPS information, biometric information and so much more. The analytics, cleaning and storage issues are now being worked upon by the Indian police who use these records as a storehouse of both national and international criminals. This move helps in tactical and crime analysis of crimes thus curbing the crime rates.
Being able to forecast and map crime infested areas the police are now using ML for predictions, tracking persons and recommendations on curbing criminal activities.
The Delhi police in collaboration with ISRO have developed a satellite analytical method and system named CMAPS used for crime mapping, predictions, and analytics. This helps them maintain order, enforce laws and curb crimes.
In Jharkhand IIM Ranchi helps the police force implement systems, evaluate records, time and date of crimes, types of crimes with locations to be able to offer predictions, forecasts, and solutions to crimes in infested zones.
The police in Bangalore in association with IBM trains it’s officers on the state-of-art software for data analytics to make the best use of crime curbing techniques.
The Indian police systems are being updated with self-learning ML algorithms useful for crime analytics, analyzing large data volumes and providing accurate predictions and forecasts based on data accumulated and stored.
Predictions of crime-rates:

Such predictions fall into one of the below three groups.

Based on different crime types like dacoity, robbery, assault of women, trafficking of children, rape, molestations, etc.
Based on cluster parameters volume of lost property, lost lives numbers, the number of persons involved in the crime, modus operandi, method followed by the criminals, etc.
Based on area and its rate of crimes.
The Indian police follow the IACA or International-Association-of- Crime-Analysts techniques which use four distinct classes of functions to define its areas of analytical operations. They are

1) Analysis of crime-intelligence functions involving data on offenders, victims, networks, and organizations and is much lesser in India when compared to the USA.

2) Analysis of Tactical functions where the deployment of police human resources, patrol patterns and investigation are the major thrust areas.

3) Analysis of Strategic functions where policies, strategies, developmental issues, prevention, and evaluation methods and techniques are a priority.

4) Analysis of Administrative functions like administrative and interaction needs of the police, government interactions, and data regarding the police community is given precedence.

Concluding note:

Technological advancements, science, and analytics can help curb crime rates and make the common man’s life secure, happy and simple with efficient policing and measures to curb all kinds of crimes. The Indian police have embraced the changes wholeheartedly and look to succeed in their ventures detailed above with able help from institutions and the common people.

If you want to learn about how analytics can improve your life direct your queries regarding the Imarticus Learning courses to their 24×7 counselors. You too can make a difference in the field of analytics. Don’t wait.

Is India The Best Fintech Destination?

The Indian Fintech industry witnessed a boom in the early 2000s, and it has shown no signs of slowing down. We take a deeper look at India’s Fintech industry

Since the beginning of 2010, India saw the dawn of the financial era. Banking institutions began seeing the advantages of technology and invested heavily in emerging technologies. This gave rise to a number of financial technology or Fintech courses start-ups in India. Technologies such as AI, Blockchain and cloud computing began to seep the financial market making it easy for transactions to be carried out easily with minimum human intervention. This resulted in e-commerce blossoming where consumers could make financial transactions such as online payments, shopping and paying bills without any worry.

There are six basic benefits that were highlighted during the Singapore Fintech Festival 2018 and these included access, inclusion, ease of living, connectivity and growth of opportunity and accountability by individuals and banks. Technology has now entered the mainstream and is creating opportunities like never before and has impacted the economy tremendously.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke at length about the fintech industry at the Singapore Fintech Festival 2018. He spoke about the growth of fintech startups in the country, the impact of demonetization. He said that there is an eruption of fintech innovation and enterprise in India. The future of fintech and Industry 4.0 is emerging in India according to the Prime Minister.

In this article, we want to list down the top reasons why India is emerging as the IT capital of the world. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Digital India has seen success with many industries adopting technology at a rapid rate.

Combating Crime
When you deploy technologies such as blockchain and AI, it makes it easier for banking and financial institutions to address frauds and crime. Since all the data and transactions are well protected and human intervention is minimum, crimes are drastically reduced thereby decreasing costs. It also prevents money laundering to a great degree.

Aadhaar Card
The introduction of the Aaadhaar card in India has made it possible for marginalised parts of the society to open bank accounts with ease. It has ensured connectivity and ease of living with opportunities for 1.3 billion Indians. The Jan Dhan Yojana has enabled the opening of 330 million new bank accounts in the past three years.

Ease of Payments
Online payments and its accessibility have opened a gateway of possibilities thereby ensuring that there is high levels of productivity in the country and had a good impact on the economy.

Demonetization

It has been two years since the occurrence of demonetization in India, and the fintech industry has only grown at a rapid pace with the rise of digital payments and transactions. There is a 207% increase in the volume of transactions carried from 79.67 Cr transactions as recorded in October 2016.

Conclusion
The fintech revolution has only begun, and with banking institutions adopting newer technologies, it will give rise to more start-ups, making India a sought-after destination for financial innovation.

How The Rupee Became The Best Performing Currency in Asia?

How The Rupee Became The Best Performing Currency in Asia?

The Rupee was declared the best performing currency in Asia in March 2019! Financial trends and analytics are at the core of predicting the value of the currency in the international stock markets. So, when the findings revealed that the rupee had suddenly in little over a month everyone was curious as to the factors that led up to this change in fortunes.

Factors fuelling the recovery:

The 2019 midterm polls: The very announcement of the polling schedule impacted the rupee positively. It is normal that new brooms bring in new changes. And the stocks responded positively to this factor by seeing a sudden pick up in values against the Euros, Yen, and US dollar as comparative currencies.

The present PM could win the next term: If you believe the trends reported by analytics of data on the pre-poll sentiments the present PM has a very good chance at repeating his last performance and becoming a second-term PM. He does have to his credit the much-debated demonetization and flushing off illegitimate funds from the system to account for. Besides, the thrust area of turning India into a digital economy saw the great implementation of such practices which have been generally speaking quite successful. A second term will push the rupee values up further according to some experts in poll-analytics.

Escalated Indo-Pak tensions: India sent out a firm message after tensions sprung up post the Pulwama attacks and India’s retaliatory measures at ending terrorism in J and K. The world finally recognized the dangers breeding there and this caused a spurt in values for the Indian rupee. This also contributed hugely to an improvement in the PM’s ratings as a potential second-term candidate.

Huge positive sentiments in buying of shares: This type of investment by foreign stakeholders went ballistic in mid-March and raised bond values to a high within a short period of one month.

Borrowings in US dollars: This factor aided by buying of assets strengthened the rupee values further and helped arrest the downslide against the US dollar.

US and Europe positive sentiments: Though the US has been speaking tough, there has been perceptible bettering of relations with both big players and their stock markets and financial institutions in the global economy, and this in conjunction with other factors caused the rise in values according to a segment of Bloomberg experts.

The robust recovery in cash-flows to portfolio management: This came about with the bettering of the BJP a political party that appears to be set to win the on-going seven-phased polls.

Anticipated volatility fell: A decrease in the 3-month period of the anticipated figures for price-volatility and movement of monies fell to reasonable limits recently which spurred the recovery and price-improvements seen by the Indian rupee versus the US dollar.

What does this mean?

The results of the polls which is due to complete in mid-May could be the crucial factor for the resilience in the rupee values. Should BJP manage a clear win the prices will stabilize as versus the dollar and this augurs well for the Indian economy. Going from the worst performing to the best in its class is an unexplained trend at the moment mainly due to the ambiguity of the poll results being an important factor. However, other indices and factors like good money-flows, carrying-over of trade prices of the rupee, increased chances for the PM and BJP to win the polls and stabilization of conflicts along with better relationships globally have also contributed to this success story.

How you can get a better understanding:

In parting, financial degrees do not teach you the best technological tools to understand trends, forecasts, and predictions. All is not lost! Do a financial degree course with Imarticus Learning to inculcate the best-practices and tools for efficiency in using analytics.

On a concluding note, it is interesting to study the various factors that contributed to the rupee emerging as Asia’s best currency. To make a financial career and qualify for certification you need a reputed institute like Imarticus who have wide acceptance across all verticals. The Financial Analyst certification adds value to your resume, is almost a mandatory requirement and opens the doorways to a satisfying career with extremely handsome salaries. Why tarry? Enroll and reap the benefits of Imarticus courses today.