Data Analytics in Government
Written by: admin
The government is the biggest generator and consumer of data in any given country. Whether we are talking about public identification records, criminal databases, classified documents, census, public grievances and healthcare data, or even tax compliances; governments across the globe have access to the data of billions of people.
Globally all governments are engaged with large scale digital transformation in offering services to their citizens through the digital medium. It becomes incredibly critical to get analytical insights of these services, their efficacy and performance indicators against all citizen services. All this data is vital in building a big picture, and understanding the general state of the nation and its citizens.
Modernizing Data Collection
Up until quite recently, these data collection processes were completely manual, requiring extreme levels of manpower and quality control to ensure any level of credibility and contemporaneousness.
This meant that we could only conduct such data collection activities, in very limited manner – once or twice in a decade. As a result, even if some forward-thinking policymakers decided to use a more data-driven approach for their decisions, they would still be relying on mostly outdated data.
Fortunately for us in India , with the development of technology and modern digital processes, we have moved past this problem; by modernizing data collection with the help of mobiles and other smart devices. Since the data is collected digitally, we can easily convert it into actionable intelligence, using smart algorithms that can detect all sorts of patterns in the datasets, and make helpful predictions about the topic in focus.
People already have experience with this type of technology, in the form of social media platforms, which use AI and ML algorithms to determine what you like best. Governments can use this power for the greater good instead, by recognizing areas that need the most help, and factors that cause the most harm. This way, they can ensure that whatever policy they create will always work for the betterment of society.
Governmental Initiatives
The success of these ventures is emboldening the government and its officials, to rely on analytics before making any significant decisions. In fact, we are already witnessing a large-scale shift, where all sorts of government agencies are actively working on digitizing their existing databases, so they can fill in holes in their existing prediction models.
Everything; from agriculture to healthcare, transport, taxation, weather forecasting, national security, and even general administration, is getting a complete overhaul, as we bring all our services and data sets to the cloud. Once we are able to accomplish this goal, we can then start merging all these records into an incredibly complex and comprehensive Big Data set, which will help us finding new and revealing insights. In addition to using the data proactively for public benefit, the government also has the responsibility to preserve the safety of all this information and use AI responsibly.
Private Public Partnerships
Fortunately, our government understands the scope of the technology and the emerging need for it, and has already embarked on a mission to ensure that we are deploying latest analytics, and AI and Machine learning techniques to derive multidimensional insights around large set of different government initiatives.
In their pursuit of leveraging the best technology, the government is promoting and partnering with start-ups and niche players like Pinnacle Digital, a forward-looking data analytics company that is deeply engaged in building next generation Analytics products since the last 7 years. Product that has been designed to meet the unique needs of a variety of public sector services and different government departments.
The company has proven its ability to optimize administrative efficiency through analytical outputs, with a long history of documented success within the Telecom sector, and they continue to expand their portfolio into the government sector successfully.
Towards this goal, Pinnacle has partnered with CSC e Services Ltd – a company under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MEITY), to deliver an advanced Analytics product that can process million of data records and produce actionable insights for all kinds of citizen services.
Pinnacle has also built an analytics solution for the Ministry of Statistics and Program Implementations (MosPI), through their partnership with CSC.
Pinnacle is building upon this momentum by engaging with other departments regarding their needs, and partnering with them in their digital transformation journey. Thus, playing a vital role as a reliable analytics partner, and more importantly, a ‘Make in India’ company with complete ownership of IPR, as envisioned by Honourable Prime Minister of our country.
We are also privileged to be guided in this journey by high quality experts from industry and academia, who are graciously helping us build a world class analytics company. By leveraging all this experience and knowledge, we aim to help spread the reach of analytics in the government sector, and change the way public services are delivered and consumed in a dynamic environment.