Ashutosh Singh

Ashutosh Singh

With 12+ years of experience in academics at present working as an Assistant Professor at IILM, Greater Noida Campus in the field of Accounting and Finance.

Python for Data Science and Visualization

Blog Catgeory, General Blog

Python is the most widely used high-level programming language. It is the simplicity that makes Python a favorite language with coders and data scientists. Non-programmers feel uncomfortable when they are asked to work on a programming language.

But I have a justification – do you know simple mathematical and logical functions of MS-Excel. If yes, you can easily handle programming language like Python.

Before talking about Python let us know what is Data Analytics? Today, Data science is an attractive career option. Analytics is a blend of Big Data, statistical methods, and management decision making. Businesses are generating large amount of data as they are online now more than ever. Data comes in the form of text (opinion), number (satisfaction rating), voice messages, and videos (product reviews after delivery). To be ahead of competitors, businesses wish to analyze the data, make meaningful outcomes to take informed decisions.

Let me introduce you with Python – Python is a production-ready computer programming language, this language is used in multiple operations. One of its tasks is data analytics but it is not specifically meant for data analysis. It’s an open-source language so you don’t need to pay anything, just download Anaconda and start working on Python.  Python facilitates libraries, online communities, and a limited number of packages that are easy to use. Its best feature is the visualization of data. After using various software to make an eye candy chart I think, my search ends at Python. Yes, it’s a command-based programming language where you have to memorize commands or make a note to use them at the right time. Where Python is a winner or loser? It is the non-availability of GUI or Graphical User Interface like MS-Excel, SPSS, or SAS. But at the same time, it is a boon too. GIU limits the creativity of the user; the user will get only the features that are available with the software. But with Python, you can add features. Two examples of the charts are below-

At present, the software available in the market for the statistical calculations like R, MS-Excel, SPSS, SAS etc. All of them have some challenges and some benefits. If you will check vacancies in the top-paying jobs you will find

Today, there is varied software available in the market for statistical calculations like R, MS-Excel, SPSS, SAS, etc. All of them have some challenges and benefits. If you look at top-paying jobs you will find that companies are running behind Python. Let’s see how the other statistical packages fare in the race.

  • R – R and Python are the most widely used statistical software in the field of data analytics. The reason for their popularity is they are open-source; one can download them, learn about them, and start working without paying a single penny. However, which one is better, and why? Let’s see –
  • R is an academic tool specifically designed for statistical research only.
  • For learners, Python and R are easy at the beginners’ level but when it comes to advanced functions, R becomes complex and is difficult to develop expertise. When you will shift from GUI based software to R or Python, initially it will seem daunting due to typing commands and no usage of mouse.
  • R loses the race when it comes to visualization. Finding the right package for visualization can be a tedious task for a beginner as there are 2000 different packages. In Python, there are few packages like Seaborn, Bokeh, and Pygal that are easy to remember by a practitioner.
  • MS-Excel – MS-Excel is software in the MS-office package developed by Microsoft Corporation. If you are known about the formulas in excel, Python will be easy for you. Because you can use mathematical, logical, and other operators while writing commands.

But still, Python wins the race.

  • MS-Excel is paid but Python is free.
  • MS-Excel is very easy to learn, but cannot handle data faster and easier.
  • MS-Excel is not capable of advanced statistics, and machine learning.
  • Detecting and fixing errors is a challenge in MS-Excel.
  • In the case of advanced visualization, if you are stuck in MS-Excel there are no solutions available. Options of a community (a group of people online that help each other in solving issues) and libraries (data set on which you can practice and improve your problem-solving skills) help is not available for MS-Excel.
  • SPSS – SPSS is a statistical package for the Social Sciences and is a popular product of IBM. It’s popularity is due to its GUI which is similar to MS-Excel.
  • For learners purchasing SPSS is a costly affair, it disappoints aspirants who wish to learn data analysis using the software.
  • Some other features that are lacking are non-availability of online communities and libraries.
  • SPSS becomes slower when you are handling an extremely large data set.
  • SAS – Statistical Analysis System or SAS developed by SAS Institute at North Carolina University. It is popular because it addresses the problems that MS-Excel and SPSS cannot handle. Due to its high safety ratings, banking and insurance companies prefer to use it. But, it is expensive software priced in India at INR 20 Lacs.

Of course, Python has not captured the complete analytics market but it is getting consideration. The reason is that we see mushrooming of startups in the area of web designing, e-commerce business, leading to increase in data usage, and its open-source availability. Students looking for a career in Data Science must keep Python in your quiver. It will be a useful tools that can enhance your job and career prospects.

For more information on Python-related readings follow my blogs on IILM Blog site https://blog.iilm.edu or write to me at ashutosh.singh@iilm.edu.

The Future of Financial Analytics

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The industry has become so competitive; newfound ventures are posing a challenge to the old giants. Time duration has shortened to achieve targets of becoming a billion-dollar company. It took years for Tata, Birla and Mahindra to join the billion-dollar club whereas Flipkart became a $15.5 Billion company in just 13 years. Innovations in computer and IT fields have changed the way we see a business in the last few decades. The Internet is generating data in Gigabytes every day. Financial analysts explore the financial data and use financial ratios to generate meaningful reports for the company and the competitors. In a VUCA, world businesses want to make the strategy for tomorrow with more accuracy. Analytics answers these business queries. A combination of statistical models and computer software with financial analysis can add cherries in the financial reports. Note that, I am not denying or minimizing the relevance of financial ratios or financial analysis.

Top business schools now not just focus on teaching financial analysis and financial analytics because the later one facilitates predictive modelling. In short, it tells us, what is going to be the next?

Financial analytics is a forward approach. It focuses on identifying the business problem first and provides solutions. Financial analytics is a great tool in the field of risk management and investment. Being In the domain of financial analytics, your concerns are not just finance but all the business operations.

Let us see the few aspects of financial analytics-

#1 News Analytics- Stock prices and investor’s sentiments are highly correlated. News is a powerful tool that affects an investor’s sentiments. For instance, analysts commented on the press conferences of President Trump making an upward move in the US stock market. An analyst needs to create a model that can infer the effect of the news. A business school or MBA program students looking for a career in financial analytics must have an insight into the effect of the news on the stock price.

#2  Credit Risk Analytics- Default of receivables affects the liquidity of the organisation. This branch is very useful for banks and NBFCs. It analyses and predicts the future chances of default and the possible clients that may become defaulter in the future. Lending institutions can take preventive actions for such clients.

#3  Revenue and Pricing Analytics– Pricing covers everything whatever an organization does. A small change in the pricing of the product can create drastic changes in the revenue. While changing the price you need to check how you can increase value to the consumer. And the price must be acceptable to the consumer. MBA in Delhi NCR and PGDM colleges are offering dual specialization. Students with dual degrees in finance and marketing can get good opportunities if they are also interested in playing with numbers in statistics.

#4 Cash Management Analytics- This is a proactive approach to forecasting the liquidity and working capital requirement. It is also helpful in inspecting the blockage of smooth flows of payment. It further optimizes and rationalizes the cash management process efficiently. Some management graduates don’t like to go in the field of the stock market and prefer to be in the area of accounting so they can join this field.

#5 Trade and Supply Chain Finance Analytics- MBA, PGDM or BBA students looking to work not in a specific domain but for a business as a whole can be a part of this field. Trade analytics is all about finding new territories and customers for the products. In marketing language, it is about finding a niche market. However, supply chain finance is related to logistics and financing of the supply chain. Businesses want to minimize the cost that results in a minimum price. An analyst in supply chain looks for the possibilities to minimize the cost of transportation.

We have just scratched the crust of financial analytics. There are several possibilities available for students for job opportunities and businesses to minimize the cost and maximize the profitability. Students facing phobia of mathematics and its related branches must understand that mathematics and its interdisciplinary branches will rule the world in industry 4.0.

In the coming times some people will be either making mathematical or statistical models while others might be implementing these models and take major decisions based on them. Keeping this in view, students looking for Business schools or MBA in Delhi NCR must prepare themselves for Financial Analytics as a career option. All they need to do is work hard and exercise effort while pursuing an MBA / PGDM program to gain expertise in financial analytics.

There is a lot to explore in this area, for more information on Financial Analytics & related readings follow my blogs on IILM Blog site https://blog.iilm.edu or write to me at ashutosh.singh@iilmgsm.ac.in. We look forward to students creating a difference.

 

 

 

 

 

Myths about Green Economy: Busted

Alumni, Campus Life, Career Development (Placement), General Blog, IILM Graduate School of Management, IILM Institute for Higher Education, IILM Undergraduate Business School, IILM University, , , , , , , ,

Greenery calms down our eyes and mind. It symbolizes life, freshness, nature, harmony, energy, and fertility. The world is facing serious challenges in environmental front. To motivate people to stop contaminating the environment, Environmentalist, and environmental enthusiasts are using “Green” concepts everywhere. At IILM with a blend of management and engineering, we create Eco friendly surroundings. Same concept is used for green economy.

“An economy is the production and consumption of goods and services and flow of money. Then what is Green Economy? Is Green economy all about planting trees in the world? Let us make it short and simple by explaining Green Economy. Green Economy stands for accelerating economic activities and infrastructure that are helpful in low carbon emission, increase energy conservation, and efficient use of resources.

There are certain myths about green economy, which you will also relay on-

  • Every business around is polluting environment. Agricultural waste makes Delhi’s atmosphere  suffocating every year, chemical fertilizers contaminating underground water. Agriculture a major sector in green economy is polluting our country. Therefore, green economy is just a concept for books.
  • Everything around is driven by fossil fuel. Electricity for metro trains generated from the thermal power plants using coal. In actual we are not conserving the environment. Environmental protection, social benefits and profit making cannot go together. Again, green economy is a myth.
  • Green economy cannot grow like fossil fuel based economy. This economic model will not get acceptability of citizens. So it is a myth.
  • Shifting economy from fossil fuel to other energy sources may result in job loss. Governments won’t be able to afford this, so it’s a myth.

Let us burst the Myths about Green Economy

#Myth-1 Industry transformation in Green Economy

Businesses will get transformed into green economy. Present MSME like renewable energy, sustainable transportation, waste management, green residential areas, water management, land management, fisheries, agriculture, forestry, etc. will work on large scale. There are certain areas in the business that yet to be explored. Organic farming can make agriculture non polluting, healthy and profitable.

#Myth-2 Environmental protection, Social benefits, and profit making cannot go together

  1. J. Kurian of Amul, Shri Mahila Grh Udyog and several other Indian examples has proven that social benefit and profit making can go together. Both of them uplifted the people financially. Government of Gujarat has introduced a project of installing solar panels on 19000 Km long network of canals of Narmada River. Hence, above myth has been proven wrong

#Myth-3 Growth of Green Economy is perceive slow

Renewable energy and recycling can be the key drivers to foster green economy. Availability of energy and raw material economically is the need of industry. Renewable energy is an economic and sustainable source of energy and recycling can provide cheaper raw material. India’s 55% of energy requirement will be covered by renewable energy sources by 2030, if this sector will grow at the same pace.

#Myth-4 Career and Job Opportunities are limited

Whenever technology shifts, it affects the job market, and existing jobs transform. India’s top business schools are carving our future managers and technocrats to work in present environment and cope up with future challenges. Research will play a key role for every student.

At IILM College of Engineering, Department of Biotechnology trains students in hydroponic technology, vermin compost, bio compost etc. Our Alumnus and existing students are working with reputed brands at renewable energy sector. Civil engineers at IILM are developing methods of using non-degradable plastic in construction. This will change the future construction techniques and minimize pollution.

Coming to the end of discussion, I would like to support  Green Economy as- industries can easily shift to renewable energy sources, Green economy will grow at the same pace like fossil fuel based on our  economy there will be no dearth of career opportunities. Green economy will contribute in better health of citizens. Citizens can start practicing basic  fundamentals of green economy by using solar power, compost in kitchen gardens which are  very beneficial in  conserving energy.

For more information on green economy related readings follow my blogs on IILM Blog site https://blog.iilm.edu or write to me at ashutosh.singh@iilmgsm.ac.in

Top business school in india

9 Tips to Write a Great Literature Review

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Students from business schools and MBA aspirants around the world are keen to join the internship. Having an Internship is not enough, documentation of work is also necessary. Internship Research Report is a document that tells what you did during your internship and your productive approach towards the process. An intern needs to create the report carefully. The purpose of a literature review is to make the foundation of any report strong enough. You can define research as a criminal investigation, where you need to prove and justify your approach with tools of research.
A literature review is a process of appraising the studies conducted till date on a specific topic. Let us take an example of an intern working for the recruitment of an organization where their job is to analyze the recruitment process of an organization before hiring. Now during their analysis, it’s important for the intern to check how past researchers studied the recruitment process. What were the benefits of the processes they followed? Which strategy helped them understand the job requirements and better assessment of the candidates? This detailed review of the literature would help the intern to work on the current organizational recruitment process and forecast changes if necessary.

While reviewing various sources it is very important that students and researchers look into the following areas of the literature that they wish to review-

  1. Methodology – Awareness of methodology, and analysis instruments are necessary for the researcher to get familiar with the way research conducted by researchers. It further guides that research is going in the right direction or not.
  2. Research Problem – It gives clarity to the problem being address in the research. The Researcher can compare and contrast the findings of prior researches conducted.
  3. Research Gap – Research gap is the missing piece of the puzzle. It’s an area not yet explored by researchers. An example, the number of physically disabled candidates applying for IT jobs and the number of selection of such candidates. Systematic literature reviews help to identify the research gap. If you would be able to cover such a research gap your report will be worthy of the industry.
  4. Writer’s skills – A well-written literature review gives an insight into critical thinking and writing abilities to the audience.
  5. Limiting researcher’s biases – Human decisions are always affected by psychological biases. Prior research review direct researcher towards an unbiased view.

Writing a literature review is an art. There are certain guidelines that make Review of Literature stronger for any Research-

  1. Define The Problem Statement – It’s a herculean task to create the objectives or problem of research. Being a student of a business school, you can consult your mentor or project guide. It must not be too narrow or too wide as prior researches are available. A wide problem statement makes the research tuff to be justified and analyze.
  2. Locating the Literature Survey – Online resources like google scholar, Microsoft Academic, Base, Core, Semantic Scholar, ERIC database, and many more can help you to locate and review the related literature. A proper citation must be there in the report.
  3. Analysis of Literature – While analyzing literature you need to consider (a) the objective of the study, (b) statistical or analytical techniques used to analyse the literature, (c) result or conclusion of the research made.
  4. Structure a literature review – The chapter must start with an introduction that will define why the topic picked, trends of research. Contribution of researchers in the area, and in the end conclusion explains the gap which you wish to fill and further opportunities of the future studies in the area.

With all this extensive information on how to Review the Literature in Research Projects many educationists, students and professionals have benefitted. Giving it away forward we at IILM University help students at every step in their internships where they work on Research Projects and Proposals. This process might sound rigorous initially but once our students master the basics about Research it opens wide horizons of Creativity, growth & Innovation for them. It gives them a professional edge while being a student they get exposure to learning things the right way.
There is a lot that goes into Research. A true Researcher Lives his Research every moment. Note that during your placement interviews maximum questions are Project-based where your research skills and your dissertation report speak a lot about your analytical skills. Cracking your interviews with critical research gives you an edge over other students. Only a few Universities stress on a Strong Research Foundation and IILM being one benchmarks its Research Teachings on many platforms
Does it end here? No. We keep learning our entire life but to learn it is necessary to read and practice. Keep reading and exploring to uncover the deeper insights about the great findings and researches being done every moment.

For research related guidance, follow my blogs here or write to me at ashutosh.singh@iilmgsm.ac.in

How-to-stay-positive-during-Isolation-or-quarantine-by-Spirituality

How to stay positive during Isolation or quarantine by Spirituality?

Center for Emotional Intelligence, ,

“More smiling, less worrying. More compassion, less judgment. More blessed, less stressed. More love, less hate.”

I am sure if you will involve spirituality in your lifestyle, it will definitely increase your productivity. Especially, while many of us take the option of work from home. Staying with family, roommates, their behavior sometimes irritates us and both parties lose the temper. Some of us stay alone, loneliness according to Indian Journal of Psychiatry may lead to physical and mental diseases.

So, before we go further let us understand about isolation and quarantine.

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services says isolation is separating a sick person from healthy people to stop communicable diseases, and quarantine is restricting the movement of citizens so that communicable diseases will not spread to other people.

Now, what is spirituality?

Indian history is full of famous philosophers. Adi Shankracharya, Swami Vivekanand and Dr. Sarvapali Radhakrishnan. They guided the world towards spirituality. In his work, “Indian Religious Thoughts” S. Radhakrishnan gave the definition of spirituality as the goal of an individual as “establishing a relationship with the supreme power.” He further quoted Plato’s thought that is parallel to Indian philosophy when he said, “spirituality is irresistible harmony with the reality of the world.” Same quoted by the Gautam Buddha that the world is full of sorrow. Every human searches way to minimize his grief all over the world but the way to get rid of this grief is somewhere inside us.

Dr. Radhakrishnan further quoted Brihadranyaka Upanishad practicing spirituality by three simple steps-

Step 1# “Shravan” (listening)

You can listen if you let someone speak and one needs to listen quietly. Listening makes your thought focused.

Step 2# “Manana” (thinking)

Thinking let you understand and analyze the multiple courses of actions you can take in a specific situation

Step3#“Nididhyasana” (Meditation)

Mediation is the result of listening and thinking leads to concentrated action. A concentrated effort increase the productivity of an individual in comparison to the one whose mind is bombarded my several types of thoughts.

The final output of following the above three steps is “Atma darshan” (self-vision or self-knowledge). An individual thinks critical his/her judgments do not get the effect from the biases.

Philip Sheldrake a religious historian, a theologian with a background of philosophy and political theory says in “Spirituality: A Very Short Introduction” that spirituality is now a personal and tailored to everyone it does not matter that there is any religious affiliation of one’s spirituality or not. Some will say it is spirituality vs. religion. No, it is not.

Spirituality is more than worship. It is about spreading positivity and doing social good.

Conclusion

In the end, now its time to bring theories of spirituality into action. Yes, it is next to impossible not to react. It is true every action has an equal and opposite reaction. But by practicing a spiritual lifestyle we can change it to “Every action can have a more positive reaction”. In addition, even you are staying alone you will find you are too much busy doing things that you do not have time to think negatively.

You can feel spiritual while planting a tree or taking care of a plant in your house, animal nearby your house. So the people who are quarantine can do all above. The people who stay in isolation can give time to their hobbies that they can do in available space.

The Guardian has reported an increase of 20% in domestic violence been increased during global lockdown due to Covid-19 pandemic. It can be controlled and minimise by the help of spirituality during this tuff time. No matter which religion you follow, you can be a change agent, you can change the lives of others too.

Citation:

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/you-hearing-listening-five-benefits-jan-johnston-osburn/

https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2020/apr/28/calamitous-domestic-violence-set-to-soar-by-20-during-global-lockdown-coronavirus