Data Science for Sustainable Development Goals

This book presents real-life applications of data science, artificial intelligence, and big data for the Sustainable Development Goals. It includes a list of case studies from different states across India. The case studies in the book use both structured and unstructured data like numeric data, textual data, and video/image data across the various chapters for analysis. It explores various aspects of data science starting from on ground data collection to dashboard based reporting, unsupervised methods like clustering for grouping data points, use of artificial intelligence, machine learning and deep learning, search or information retrieval, time series forecasting, and optimization.

• It showcases data science decision-making processes, driving innovation, and solving complex problems in real-life scenarios across sectors like governance, education, healthcare agriculture and sanitation.

• The SDGs provide a framework for societal development and well-being for all; the data science and big data interventions in this book are aligned towards mapping the various SDGs.

• Most of the data science use cases and initiative projects covered in this book have been implemented by central or state governments across different states of India.

• Shows how data science intervention can transform the social sector, potentially driving positive change and addressing critical societal challenges.

• Explained the fundamentals of data science theories with case studies, including concepts like classification, regression, predictive analytics, optimization, artificial intelligence, deep learning, and time series forecasting for readers of different disciplines.

It serves as a valuable reference for graduate students, researchers, and scholars seeking to deepen their knowledge and engage with real life applications of data science. It will also serve as a valuable resource for government officers and policy practitioners, providing a range of cases on the use of data-based methods for improving governance and policy making.

The Open Access version of this book, available at http://www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons [Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC BY-NC-ND)] 4.0 license funded by by the Great Lakes Institute of Management, Gurgaon Campus, Delhi NCR, India.

Avik Sarkar is a Faculty at the Indian School of Business, working in the areas of Data, Emerging Technology and Public Policy. At ISB, Sarkar has 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. 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), the premier policy think-tank of the Government of India. At NITI Aayog, 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. 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.

Bappaditya Mukhopadhyay is currently a Professor in Economics and Finance at the Great Lakes Institute of Management and a visiting professor at the University of Ulm. Germany. He is also the Managing Editor of Journal of Infrastructure and Development apart from serving on the editorial boards of many peer reviewed journals. Director of the Business Analytics Program at Great Lakes Institute. He has been voted among the top ten Analytics Academician in India for the last few years and also featured among top 75 Academic data leaders globally. Mukhopadhyay obtained his PhD from Indian Statistical Institute in 2002 and has been a prolific researcher in Development Economics, Policy implementations, and Applied Machine Learning.