The third decade of the 21st century is going to be an eventful one in the technological world. Innovative and disruptive technologies developed in the last decades have permanently changed the way business is done and our perception of the industrial world. There is no doubt that today digitalization rules the mood and data is extremely profitable if one knows how to use it. While for most data science is the magic that has already changed the rules of the game there remains doubt in the minds of many whether the true potential of data can ever be reached or whether Data science is just another myth that has been Over-hyped by the media!
If you are a data science aspirant and planning to enroll yourself in a data science institute then such questions might be arising in your mind too. Please don’t worry, Data science has proven itself time and again as the best career path now and the power of data science is amazing if not magical!
Let us assess the power of data science through the use of a real-life case study:
Covid 19 and data science
The COVID 19 pandemic wreaked havoc on the health care sectors across the globe. Researchers and doctors faced the daunting task of identifying the virus and how to control it. With no previous data on the nature of the new novel Corona Virus, it was a painstakingly slow and difficult process for the entire world.
However, once preliminary data started to arrive, researchers started to utilize the same to identify patterns and potential weaknesses. Soon lakhs of patients were getting infected and the data being generated out of it was huge and diverse. Researchers understood that analyzing the data is not going to be a simple task. And this is where Data science came into play. Data scientists employed advanced techniques that later churned out deep insights about the nature of the Virus. These insights were later shared with medical professionals who utilized the insights to find a cure.
Now at the end of 2021 although we do not have a perfect cure for the virus yet we are in an advantageous position as we have insights about the possible mutations, not the virus, and the efficiency of recently developed drugs. New variants of the virus are also being efficiently traced and contact tracing is much easier with Data Science!
Use of Data Science in Agriculture
India is a country whose economy is heavily dependent on agricultural production. This is why whenever parts of the country suffer from natural calamities, the economy has to endure a lot of stress. Let us see how the Indian government and other agencies are working closely to leverage data science to seek a solution to disaster-related problems:
- Climate data has been utilized by data scientists to create a predictive model. This model is very efficient in predicting weather changes and forecast calamities.
- Data on agricultural goods and products has led to the development of drought and flood-resistant seeds.
- Data on soil types and production rate on each soil type has helped data scientists to correctly identify potential problems in each soil type and effective solutions.
- Identifying farmer issues on available data and government policies that proved to be beneficial could be identified efficiently.
Thus, data science not only helped the government to increase efficiency and cut back on losses but also highly improved decision-making at the highest level!
Leveraging data science to gain an edge over competitors
A popular clothing brand in eastern India was looking at huge losses as it was continuously losing customers to its competitors. The brand tried every traditional business method like luring customers with lucrative discounts and spending resources on TV and print advertisements but nothing seemed to work. A company executive learned about how the implementation of data science can help solve the problem and thus the company hired a start-up offering data science and business analytics solutions.
The startup started gathering data from a variety of sources and once the data was ingested for analytics, data science tools brought out interesting and impactful trends like how the marketing team of the clothing brand was missing the mark at finding the target audience and how the advertisements were ineffective. Driven by the insights provided by the startup, the company shifted its marketing focus and soon tasted success.
However, is it magic though?
Although some implementations of data science techniques may indeed feel like magic yet it is important to remember that reaping benefits from data science requires patience and a team of extremely skilled data scientists, data analysts, and big data engineers.