No job role is easy, and in a fast-paced industry like data science, every work takes tremendous efforts and hard work. In order the understand the nuts and bolts of different job roles from the world of Data Science, Analytics India Magazine (AIM) steps into the shoes of experts from the industry. And for this week’s “A Day In The Life” series, AIM caught up with Nitika Virmani, Sr Analytics Consultant – Public Sector, SAS India.

Being a part of the Public Sector – Data Science team at SAS, Nitika’s work and life isn’t something which is boring, rather it is full of excitement. She always has a definite purpose in mind as she goes through each day and it includes a good amount of travel, reading, and thought processing. “I keep things flexible, open from beginning till the end, keeping in consideration the difference between Important and Urgent,” said Nitika.

When asked about her office hours, Nitika said, “the government is my customer and the citizens are beneficiaries. And, with such an interesting task at hand that directly impacts the lives of the citizens, there are no 9 – 5 time bars and monotony to follow.” She also said that upgrading self on Central & State Government initiatives, problem-solving activities with the team and deep-dive Citizen Data Analysis makes her everyday task more exciting and challenging.

Nitika is a key member of the Data Science team at SAS and she works across different aspects of Data Science such as CXO – level engagement, Functional understanding, Requirement gathering Understanding & defining the problem statement with clients, Planning & designing analytical concepts and workflow, and more.

Even though Nitika works day in and day out to make for the betterment of both the company and the government, she after her working hours thoroughly enjoys her “Me Time ”. Apart from being an Analytics Consultant, Nitika also loves travelling & photography. When not working, this enthusiastic girl from the Data Science space can be found in a pool or gym.

While she walked us through her daily life as an Analytics Consultant, Nitika also said that sometimes he personal life gets affected when work stretches a bit longer, depending on how critical the task at hand is.

Nitika is also a social person — she actively engages with a lot of people (she calls them Mentors), who believe in sharing their ideas & perspective on topics to bring about a change for social welfare. “I also have a deep hunger to work for Environmental Cause and Animal/ Human Welfare. Hence, I leave no chance to cease my time with them, to learn, or to contribute in any capacity,” said Nitika. “In addition, exchanging thoughts over coffee with friends, or dining out with family makes it all.”

the conversation went on, we asked her about her current projects and she said that at present, she is engaged with Indian Central & State Government on data & analytics and AI/ML initiatives, which requires a lot of understanding on Government initiatives, functions & operations, since each move directly impacts many lives (The Citizens of Country).

The current engagement with Govt. has many sites, and that includes:

• Dealing with big data issues (volume, variety, velocity), data governance, and data provision for all-type analytics requirements by different govt. departments.
• Self-service data analytics to empower the key stakeholders, to know, to access and to utilize data for the timely decision-making process.
• Designing a data-driven intelligent system, to proactively engage with citizens, with the motive to expand reach (awareness and adoption of schemes) and evaluate the impact at ground-level.
• Saving / improving lives by deploying AI/ ML applications.
• Building an analytics system to perform gap analysis, identify fraudulent activities or suspicious associations/networks

Looking into the future, as of now, Nitika is focusing on making current Govt. engagements successful by leveraging SAS innovative Analytics applications to touch every citizen’s life and setting up a model for long term success.

And when asked about her plan five-years from now, she said,  her plan is to work on company-wide initiatives towards helping Indian Government deploying advanced analytics solutions, citizen-centric service delivery models, Intelligent systems to establish an interactive channel for communication between citizen and govt. bodies and efficient governance models to improve Govt. operations & processes.