Dr. Avik Sarkar
Visiting Faculty, Indian School of Business, India
Dr. Avik Sarkar is currently associated with the Indian School of Business, working and teaching in Data, Emerging Technology, and Public Policy. At ISB, Dr Sarkar headed the development of the India Data Portal, a one-stop portal for analyzing and visualizing government data and working on the societal & policy aspects related to emerging technologies like artificial intelligence trustworthiness, ethics, data privacy, e-commerce policy, etc. Dr. Sarkar was the former Head of the 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 India's first AI Strategy and roadmap for the 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 was nominated among the "Top 10 Data Scientists in India" in 2017 by 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 advisory and policymaking roles through various government/multilateral committees like the International Standards Organization (ISO) through the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) committee for setting standards for "Artificial Intelligence," United Nations Big Data & Data Science group enabling big data usage across nations, Expert member in the Global Partnership for AI (GPAI), Datasets for Artificial Intelligence committee as part of Indian AI of Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MEITY), Science & Policy advisory committee of the Ministry of Science & Technology and Punjab Good Governance Fellowship. In the past, Dr. Sarkar had served on the Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) of Census 2021, and Analytics Advisory Committee for Government e-Marketplace (GeM) and was an Advisor for setting up Data Analytics Center of Excellence by the Government of Assam. Dr. Sarkar participates in academic advisor for Delhi Skills and Entrepreneurship University (DSUE), AISECT, Aegis School of Business, and as an Entrepreneurship advisory member 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 modeling, 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 related to 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 contributed significantly to developing the Monte Carlo Simulation of SPSS and the Predictive Maintenance and Quality solution for the manufacturing sector. Dr. Sarkar holds a Ph.D. from The Open University, UK, a Master's from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay, and a bachelor's from Calcutta University. Dr Sarkar has authored several technical publications and technology patents.