Sankhyiki – 2017

NMIMS, Sunandan Divatia School of Science held their annual Statistics workshop ‘Sankhyiki’ on

the 10th and 11th of January this year. In its seventh year, this two day workshop was on “Analytical

Intelligence - A Roadmap to Careers in Applied Statistics”.

It featured a series of lectures by experts from various branches of Analytics: Retail, Financial

Markets, Tax Collection, Drug Development and Consultancy, a Project Training programme that

acquisition and implementation of a project involving Statistical Analysis by the alumni of the

school of science, and a new and welcome addition this year: a statistics quiz ‘SANKHYANITI -

Statistical Strategizing’.

Sankhyiki was attended by a total of 257 participants this year: 225 Statistics students, 18

Industry experts, 15 Faculty and Alumni. The students of different colleges of Mumbai

such as Bhavans’ College, B. N. Bandodkar College of Science, Ruparel College,

Ramnarain Ruia College, Khalsa College, K. J. Somaiya College, Ismail Yusuf College

were a part of this event and their enthusiastic participation in the workshop made

Sankhyiki 2017 a roaring success!

The program was inaugurated by the Chief Guest Mr. Sandeep Mittal, Managing Director,

Cartesian Consultancy with the lighting of the lamp and followed by the NMIMS anthem. The

Organising Secretary of Sankhiyki and Program Director (Statistics), Professor Sunil Shirvaiker

warmly welcomed the guests and students alike with his introductory speech describing the

programmes offered by the college and their emphasis on practical applicability in the real world

and the purpose of Sankhyiki which helps make under graduate and post graduate students aware

of the applicability of Statistics and analytics in various fields.

Dr. Jayant Gandhi, Honourable Joint Secretary of SVKM and Mentor SDSOS, an amazing orator

who emphasized the importance of analysing big data. He congratulated Dr. Aparna Khanna and

Prof. Sunil Shirvaiker for successfully organizing a citywide event tailor-made for budding

statisticians which has created a platform that bridges the gap between theory and industrial

application and exposes them to Analytical Intelligence. Dr. Rajan Saxena, Honourable Vice

Chancellor, NMIMS University, made a rousing speech on the policy making become more data

driven and thus people centric, with a memorable quote ‘Data and the data and the data.’

Mr. Mittal’s session on advising students to be the ‘Voice of the Data’ and the seven things to do

as an analyst was a big hit with the students, most of them listening with rapt attention and penning

down notes. His lecture was followed by the award ceremony for the best Summer Internship by

M. Sc. Statistics students (AY 2015 – 2017) with the 1st prize going to Ms. Sushmita Saha, for

her Internship at HDFC Bank, 2nd prize going to Mr. Abhishek Sachdeva for his Internship at

SAS Institute India and the 3rd prize going to Ms. Suman Patel for her Internship at Cipla.

The lectures resumed with Dr. Sharad Varde, external Academic Advisor, Warwick University,

talking on ‘Creative, Practical and Analytical Intelligence’. He encouraged the students to start thinking

out of the box with a few key concepts like Creativity and Practical – that is to solve a problem

that exists around you with a practical and financially method using analytics as a foundation stone

relating this with examples of colour coding for interior of cars by a leading car manufacturer. This

was the last lecture before the very sumptuous and delicious lunch which saw students from

different colleges mingling and making good use of the novel photo booth made by the students

of SDSOS Student Council Creatives Department.

The post lunch session began with Mr. Saikat Chakraborty, Vice President, Retail Analytics

Delivery, Accenture Operations who described the hard journey of analytics from being discarded

in the favour of gut feeling, to the decision enabling tool it is today, with many examples from his

own experience in retail analytics.

Then in the Project Training programme Prof. Shirvaiker highlighted that M.Sc. Statistics students

in the second year acquire and execute an industry project. He welcomed current alumni Ms. Sapna

Tiwari and Mr. Sourav Saha who received best project award last year. Both of them gave an

insightful presentation on how they planned the project and went about implementing it by using

specialised programs like Python and advanced statistical techniques.

The first day ended with a joint session by Mr. Raj Jhaveri, Senior Manager Education from SAS

and ULTRAMAX on the importance of SAS as an analytical tool and the various SAS programmes

offered by their partner, ULTRAMAX. He also guided students on the need for career

development rather than just getting job.

The day two of Sankhyiki began with a lecture by Mr. Amul Desai, Director, SAS Consulting and

alumni of Bhavans’ college, who held an informative, interesting yet humorous session on the

three concepts required in Analytics: Plenty (of data), indecision (of decision makers) and (shortage

of) time.

He was followed by the Assistant Commissioner for Economic Intelligence Unit, Maharashtra

Sales Tax Department, Mr. Ganesh S. Patil who described the 9 functional analytical units of

EIU, MSTD such as registry, returns, Cyber forensic etc. After this, Dr. Chitra Lele, an

academician of great repute, gave a lecture on the uses of Analytics in Drug Development. An

impromptu session by Mr. Vishal Ranav, Greeksoft Technologies followed, on the importance

of Analysis of Granular Data in the Stock Market.

Post Lunch, 12 teams competed in 4 rounds to win the first Sankhyaniti Quiz Competition

which included ‘bidding’ in Round Three, a fun and interesting concept. The questions left by the

teams were passed onto the audience to keep everyone involved and a part of the on-going activity,

were awarded chocolates for the correct answer which received enthusiastic participation.

The winners of the quiz are given below:

1st Prize:

Ms. Sanika Chhatre, Ms. Maitreyee Ghadigaonkar and Ms. Shruti Borkar from Ruia College

2nd Prize:

Mr. Krishna Mishra, Mr. Sachin Jaiswal and Mr. Bharat Kurde from B.N.BANDODKAR College

As Sankhyiki 2017 drew to a close, everyone wore a satisfied smile on their face for it had achieved

what it sought to do: motivate students to take up Statistics as the major subject at the graduate

and post-graduate level and to make students aware of the applicability of the subject in various

fields.

Sankhyiki 2017 was co-sponsored by SAS Institute India Pvt. Ltd., Ultramax Infonet Education

and Greeksoft Technologies.

Day 1

A two-day workshop “Sankhyiki” on ‘Analytical Intelligence - A Roadmap to Careers in Applied Statistics’.

Lamp lighting ceremony, Saraswati Vandana, NMIMS Anthem

Welcome Speech by Prof. Sunil S. Shirvaiker,

Program Director (Statistics),

NMIMS, Sunandan Divatia School of Science

Address by Dr. J. Gandhi, Address by Dr. Rajan Saxena,

Honorary Jt. Secretary, SVKM & Mentor NMIMS SDSOS Vice Chancellor, NMIMS Deemed-to-be University

Talk by the Chief Guest Mr. Sandeep Mittal, Managing Director, Cartesian Consulting

1st Prize for Best Summer Internship 2nd Prize for Best Summer Internship

Ms. Sushmita Saha - M. Sc. Statistics Part I Mr. Abhishek Sachdeva - M. Sc. Statistics Part I

Internship done at – HDFC Bank Internship done at – SAS Institute India

3rd Prize for Best Summer Internship Dr. Rajendra D. Adsul,

Ms. Suman Patel - M. Sc. Statistics Part I Joint Commissioner of Sales Tax,

Internship done at – Cipla Economic Intelligence Unit (EIU)

Dr. Sharad Varde, External Academic Advisor, Warwick University,

Mr. Saikat Chakraborty, Vice President, Retail Analytics, Accenture

Project Training - Problem Identification and Implementation: Ms. Sapna Tiwari and Mr. Sourav Saha, M. Sc. Statistics (2014 – 2016) who received the best project shared their experience

Prof. Sunil S. Shirvaiker, presenting a memento to Mr. Raj Jhaveri, Senior Manager – Education, SAS and Ultramax and Dr. Aneela Raote, Director Sales & Operations, Ultramax Infonet Technologies Pvt. Ltd.

SAS and Ultramax Team presenting the spot prizes

The successful Statistics photo booth created by SDSOS Student Council Creatives Department.

Day 2

Mr. Amul Desai, Director – Consulting SAS Institute India Pvt. Ltd.

Mr. Ganesh S. Patil, Assistant Commissioner for Economic Intelligence Unit, Maharashtra Sales Tax Department

Mr. Vishal Rana, Consultant and Mr. Hitesh Hakani - Director at Greeksoft Technologies Pvt Ltd

Sankhyaniti – Quiz Competition

1st Prize:

Ms. Sanika Chhatre, Ms. Maitreyee Ghadigaonkar and Ms. Shruti Borkar from Ruia College

2nd Prize:

Mr. Krishna Mishra, Mr. Sachin Jaiswal and Mr. Bharat Kurde from B.N.BANDODKAR College

Comperes for Sankhyiki - Day 1 Comperes for Sankhyiki - Day 2

Mr. Winston Fernandes Mr. Shouvik Sharma

Ms. Reenu Kozhikottu Ms. Rutuja Sawant

Vote of Thanks given by Prof. Leena Kulkarni, Asst. Professor (Statistics), SDSOS