Dr. Avik Sarkar is a faculty at the Indian School of Business working in the areas of Data, Emerging Technology and Public Policy. At ISB, Dr. Sarkar is heading the development of the India Data Portal (www.indiadataportal.com), a one-stop portal for analysis and visualization of government data and working on the societal aspects related to the use of emerging technologies like trustworthiness, ethics, and privacy. Dr. Sarkar was the former Head of Data Analytics Cell and Officer on Special Duty (OSD) at NITI Aayog (National Institution for Transforming India Aayog) premier policy think-tank of the Government of India. At NITI Aayog, Dr. Sarkar helped in developing Indian's first AI Strategy and roadmap for use of data, analytics, and artificial intelligence for Governance and Policymaking across various sectors for India's inclusive growth and led efforts towards setting up the first High-Performance Computing based Data Analytics Lab and Energy Modeling Unit at NITI Aayog.
Dr. Sarkar is a multiple TEDx speaker and has been nominated among the "Top 10 Data Scientists in India" in 2017 by the Analytics India Magazine and nominated as "LinkedIn Influencer" in the Technology space in 2015 for contribution and engaging discussions on the LinkedIn platform in areas related of Big Data, Artificial Intelligence, Data Science, etc. Dr Sarkar actively participates in India's policymaking and regulations through various government committees in an advisory role like the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) committee for setting a standard for "Artificial Intelligence", Analytics Advisory committee for Government e-Marketplace (GeM), Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) of Census 2021 and Advisor towards setting up Data Analytics Center of Excellence by Government of Assam. Dr. Sarkar serves on the Academic advisory board of Aegis School of Business and the Entrepreneurship/Academic advisory board of Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology (IIIT) Delhi.
Dr Sarkar has over 20 years of experience across different aspects of artificial intelligence, data science, analytics, statistical modelling, text mining, and network analysis across companies like Accenture, IBM, Nokia, NASA, Persistent Systems, Zycus, etc. At Accenture Consulting in Singapore, he contributed to various data and analytics related engagements with the Singapore Government like efficient reporting and resolution of municipal issues, evaluation and monitoring of secondary school education, and improving operational efficiency in immigration and customs. While at IBM, Dr Sarkar made significant contributions towards developing the Monte Carlo Simulation of SPSS and the Predictive Maintenance and Quality solution for the manufacturing sector. Dr Sarkar holds a PhD from The Open University, UK, Masters from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay and a Bachelors from Calcutta University. Dr Sarkar has authored several technical publications and technology patents. Further details: https://in.linkedin.com/in/aviksarkar