Here we are dissecting the ‘Big’ in ‘Big Data’. It was only a few years ago when this tech marvel rose to the scene and it has come a long way from being the new kid on the block to an already established treat which no one can get enough of. Big Data is no longer a buzzword as it has already been widely accepted and integrated by every farsighted company and organization out there. However, what most people don’t realize is the fact that Big Data is not just limited to the technology space having found its niche but in many other equally advanced domains as well.

Big-Data-Trends-India

The applications of Big Data are staggering especially in a rising economy like India. Here are the top 5 examples of Big Data usage on a national scale:

1. Big Data & Elections:

• If there’s one thing which sets BJP apart from every other political party in the country, it is their usage of the power of the Internet. And this is where Big Data enters the fray. Big Data analytics played a pivotal role in making BJP the current ruling party.
• The party indulged in extensive data mining which opened their eyes to understanding the various local sentiments and issues that people deal with on a daily basis.
• This innate focus on data was also utilised to raise valuable funds following different traction models in different areas.
• The fact that there are no less than 800 million registered Indian voters, each with their own ideology and set of expectations, a cutting edge innovative tool was desperately needed. Voila! Big Data came to the rescue!

2. Big Data & Water Leakage Detection:

• The BWSSB (Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board) which is the body which oversees water supply and sewerage in the city has integrated with IBM’s technology which focuses on predictive analytics and Big Data in order to monitor and keep a track of the water distribution systems.
• Ever since the city’s population has almost doubled from 5.4 million in 2000 to somewhere around 10 million to this date, something had to give. This has put immense pressure on the city’s water distribution system. This is why the BWSSB in tandem with IBM has come up with an operational dashboard per se, which acts as a centralized command centre overlooking the water supply networks present in the entire city.
• Through the power of Big Data, the 45% of unaccounted water supply will definitely come down with the help of real time instantaneous monitoring and detection.

3. Big Data & Finance:

• No less than 40% of our country’s population lacks proper access to financial and banking services resulting in massive financial inclusion.
• Janalakshmi Financial services, a micro finance firm is looking to tap this potential with the help of Big Data formulating a highly aggressive plan of expansion which aims to increase their footprint from 3 million accounts till date to over 20 million accounts by the year 2020.
• Big Data will provide the much needed insights and behaviour traits along with due demographics through which such institutions can design customized financial strategies for those sections of the society which are often overlooked.
• In order to improve distribution, the company also plans to amalgamate the usage of credit decision process along with geo-spatial insights.

4. Big Data & Shopping:

• eCommerce has successfully taken over an entire nation. Right from online shopping giants like Flipkart and Snapdeal to travel giants like Goibibo and MakeMyTrip, every single eCommerce company is indulging in Big Data extensively to learn customer behaviour.
• Finding out which user is being generated from which source, the pages he visited and the reasons why those pages were visited and for how long, every possible facet can be brought to light using Big Data analytics.
• These companies indulge in data driven decision making mustering as high as 40% of their sales via Big Data analytics.

5. Big Data & Aadhar Card:

• Right from storing and analyzing petabytes of raw data to dealing with authentication requests to generating unique identification numbers for all and warehousing millions and millions of records in its repertoire, Big Data can be put to good use for all these Aadhar related tasks and more.
• The sheer volume and velocity of the Aadhar drive has been duly managed successfully thanks to Big Data and its tools.
• Big Data has been used to execute parallel data processing, data streaming, locality computing, latency readings, data integrity and all the other related challenges posted by distributed data with high octane numbers.
• It has been used to formulate analytics systems and OLTP based on which the Aadhar card initiative is running.

Big Data is here to stay and stay for long! These are just 5 of the many countless applications this tech marvel possesses. Sooner rather than later it will be adopted by every organization in some way or form. That’s how ‘big’ Big Data really is!