BENGALURU : A farmer who is told by his cell phone a month in advance, the exact day and time to sow his field, a teacher who can see on a computer that a particular child will drop out of school in next two years and a doctor who can see on her tablet the exact day when a patient will have all health parameters right for an eye surgery.
All this is already reality in India and could soon become all pervasive, if policy makers and private firms provide support with data inputs. Agriculture, Education and Health sectors could use the benefit of big data, machine learning and artificial intelligence to help accelerate economic growth and empower people. Microsoft’s, Joseph Sirosh, Corporate Vice President , Data Group is optimistic and believes in the effectiveness of Algorithms, Cloud, Internet of Things and Data (ACID) in the future of innovation, which he calls the UNREASONABLE 3.0. Microsoft cloud is already available in 32 countries and Sirosh is confident that it will transform the power of prediction from data.
The challenge however is that change only happens when technology succeeds with policy support. “There is a lot happening at the technology side, but it has to be supported by the policy,” says Dr. Mausam, Associate Professor IIT Delhi, Department of Computer Science and Engineering.
Agriculture of the future
Indian farmers can now sow seeds with the help of an app that ensures they achieve maximum harvests. The International Crops Research Institute for Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) and Microsoft in Andhra Pradesh have helped develop the app to advise farmers on the best time to sow seeds, analysing weather conditions, soil and other indicators. A personalized village advisory dashboard helps the Andhra Pradesh Primary Sector Mission (APPSM) — Rythu Kosam in monitoring the system. Microsoft is in discussions with Punjab and other states to replicate the success in AP.
Tracking patient needs
Data analytics of health records will help doctors and hospitals to predict the reasons for patients who come back with certain specific diseases. This will not only help diagnose them better, but also prevent other infections. In a few cases, hospitals using data analytics found that patient using ‘local transportation’ is unable to come for a second visit or buy medicines, due to irregular local services. Microsoft has already worked with LV Prasad Eye Institute to assess the precise time when all parameters would be conducive for conducting an eye surgery.
To keep a child in school
Sirosh says high dropout rates are a challenge, not only in India, but globally. Microsoft’s Azure Machine Learning a cloud-based predictive analytics service was used by Andhra Pradesh to build machine learning models on data that helps schools and teachers to predict possible dropouts. Using such intelligence, government subsidies, programs and other interventions can be directed to help students, especially girls, improve graduation rates. The firm is in discussions with both government and private schools, to use this data analytics platform.