Indian risk analytics to be $2.5 bn industry by 2020

The Indian risk analytics industry is expected to quadruple to $2.5 billion while the procurement analytics industry, although at an embryonic stage at present, is expected to reach $780-800 million in revenues by 2020, says a report.

India is expected to be the preferred location for the outsourcing of risk and procurement analytics services, outpacing global growth and retaining its number one position till 2020, it says.

Risk analytics is expected to be a $50-51 billion market globally, while procurement analytics is expected to be a $15-16 billion market by 2020.

The report on 'Risk and Procurement Analytics' by the National Association of Software and Services Companies (Nasscom) in association with CRISIL was released here Thursday at 'Big Data and Analytics Summit 2013', the first-of-its kind event organized by Nasscom.

The revenues of the Indian analytics industry during 2012-13 were $700 million, growing at CAGR of 19-20 percent.

The apex body of the IT companies also formed a group to address the growing business opportunities in the analytics and big data space.

The analytics special interest group comprising of members from industry, academia and government, will suggest ways to make most of the opportunity and turn India into analytics hub for the world.

Addressing a news conference, Nasscom president Som Mittal said the need of the hour was the development and nurturing of the ecosystem including leveraging the analytics applications for various sectors of the industry.

According to the report, by 2020 the IT services segment is likely to be the major contributor, accounting for more than 75 percent of revenues, with analytics accounting for the remaining 25 percent.

It noted that while financial service firms have already been using risk analytics, driven by regulatory requirements, other sectors are increasingly adopting risk analytics to grow their return on investments.

"The widespread cost savings realised by manufacturing and retail industries using procurement analytics has prompted non-traditional sectors such as travel and tourism, media and financial services to adopt the same," said Sanjeev Sinha, president, CRISIL Global Research & Analytics.

He believes the global shortage of analytics professionals presents a big opportunity for India.

"Given its large pool of PhDs, actuaries and statisticians, India is well placed to capture the $2.8 billion offshoring opportunity from the US alone," he said.

India currently employs 5,200-5,300 risk and procurement analytics professionals, a figure which is expected to rise to 15,000 by 2020.