Big Data Analytics center to be set up by CAG of India

Big Data Analytics has become the need of the hour. With the enormous amount of data being collected, all organization are trying to make use of big data analytics to draw valuable insights from it to benefit their business, to explore new opportunities and get business solutions. For instance, banks are using big data to retain customers , political parties are making use of big data to design their campaigns. Why should the government be far behind in exploring this opportunity? Hence, last week, Shri Shashi Kant Sharma, the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India who is responsible for auditing the accounts of Union and State Governments of India, announced that CAG is setting up a Data Analytics Centre. First of its kind, this center aims to analyze big data of the government and provide valuable insights to the government. The idea behind setting up this data center is to allow the auditors to analyze the data and come up with insightful audit findings which will help the government in taking better policy decisions. As part of this exercise, CAG has already initiated a pilot where they have started cloud computing of Rajasthan government’s healthcare data in order to evaluate its performance. Lot of importance has been laid down on Big Data Management and hence a policy with regards to same has been finalized by CAG. CAG of India is taking a lot of initiatives in making use of the state-of-the-art data and visual analytic tools for planning and analyzing their audit process. Also these tools are being used to better their methodology of environmental audit. These improvements will lead to deeper insights of the system of the country and hence improve them for a better future. Shri Shashi Kant Sharma, chairman of CAGs of BRICS nations, addressed its first meeting in Beijing, China.  In his keynote address, the CAG urged the BRICS nations to bring in greater cooperation among the audit institutions of these nations with primary focus on developing Big data analytics. He also announced that Indian CAG will deliver training facilities for auditors from other countries so they can learn and specialize in big data analytics.