Vikram Kumar,
Assistant Vice President,
Business Intelligence,
SBICAP Securities

By Vikram Kumar

Assistant Vice President,
Business Intelligence,
SBICAP Securities

WGF: You are a highly competent and respected officer in the Analytics division of public and private sectors of India. Please share about yourself for our readers.

Vikram: I started my career in 1996, after completing my ICWAI (Inter) and joined India Tourism Development Corporation (ITDC) as a Finance & Accounts Trainee. I had been trained for hospitality sector in deep details, and my sincerity and dedication helped me to get an opportunity to work with the senior management team. It also helped me to gain a rich experience. The management team members entrusted their confidence and extended support to me to transform the accounts department with computerized accounting system.

I had been transferred to Manali during my ITDC tenure for 18 months to handle the accounts of Hotel Manali Ashok. That was another great experience for me, and again I got the opportunity to transform their accounts department and introduce computerization system.

Though I started my profession as a finance professional, I never went into hardcore accounting and book keeping. I rather dealt with banks, bank loans and due diligence services. It gave me an opportunity to interact with a lot of MNCs and understand their way of functioning. I regularly interacted with their functionaries and collected information, while understanding their requirements and making analyses of all data. Gradually, I grew to become an analyst expert. It also triggered a hunger in me to learn new things. I was exposed to whatever new was taking place not only in India but in the entire world. So, I started analyzing the global trends and transformations.

WGF: You have always believed in innovations and pioneering long-term positive changes wherever you have worked. What is your philosophy behind your working style?

Vikram: I continued my exploration and learning through various companies from different fields, such as hospitality, IT & ITeS, global rating agencies, real estate, top media houses, retail payment gateways and Bank-led stock broking houses. In all these fields and companies, there was a consistent requirement of innovation, process and practice improvisation, and I continued to bring improvisation by technological enhancement and keep abreast of the latest technology. It helped these organizations in saving man hours and in technological enhancement to stay ahead of competitors.

WGF: You have worked with Times Group or Bennett, Coleman and Company Limited. You worked there for 7 to 8 years. You were instrumental in successfully transforming their data analytics division. Please share your experience.

Vikram: During my tenure at the Times Group while working with their BIU division, we realised the need for technological upgradation of their process to increase efficiency of the department. There was a lot of manual and repetitive process which triggered an idea of exploring visualization and automation. Touch screen mobile phones were being widely accepted with WhatsApp, and internal customers were migrating from email to WhatsApp for information sharing. We worked on introducing interactive reports, and to enhance visualization of reports we also brought auto-trigger for reports. It helped in analyzing near real-time data on performance. The transformation of data analytics division was initiated during my tenure.

WGF: You have worked with National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI). You were part of the team that created from scratch what we call UPI, and offered it to the world. Please share your experience.

Vikram: I joined NPCI in 2014, after completion of my SAS certification with assignment to create analytics division. So, along with another colleague, we formed the analytics division of NPCI. I still consider it as the biggest challenge of my career as I created an entire department from scratch, including a full team and the entire database, which had to work successfully. I used my entire technological knowledge and studied all requirements for six months. We created big database stacks, which is being used even today.

NPCI is the organization that has given UPI to the world, and I am proud to be part of the team that made it possible. Database and reports created by us helped the product team to enhance the product and the efficiency of the ecosystem.

WGF: On World Literacy Day 2014, your team conducted 120 e-Payment Literacy camps simultaneously across the country to spread awareness on e-payments. ATMs, cheque truncation system (CTS) and IMPS were relatively new to public back then. Today, more than a billion transactions per month for NPCI is a regular occurrence. What do you think is the future of e-payments?

Vikram: At NPCI, on World literacy day, I was also part of the team that conducted payment literacy camps simultaneously across the country to spread awareness on e-payment, its advantages, how it works and potential risk awareness – among 55 Regional Rural Banks. The workshop was attended by 23,390 participants in total, and the entire exercise made an entry into the Limca book of world records.

e-payments acceptance post-demonetization had increased manifolds, and mobile and data speed further reduced the dependency on physical currency. So, future is meant for e-payment, and the journey has just begun.

WGF: You have been an active part of digital India for quite a few years now. What is India’s progress on becoming fully digital?

Vikram: India is leading in electronic payment domain with advancement in technology and thought leadership with innovation and continuous efforts towards enhancement to serve its 1.25 billion population. It is an excellent case study with successful implementation.

WGF: Did COVID change the dynamics of analytics?

Vikram: COVID impacted everything and analytics is no exception to that. Analytics data prediction modeling helped the health sector and government to understand the peak and tenure of waves. Analytics helped them to plan resources and optimum utilization.

Organisations realized the role of data usage for business continuity, and also that internet and advance technology can convert impossible to possible. People can remain connected digitally and contribute to organizational objective. Improved productivity, no geographical barrier for talent pool and reduced infra cost are a few positive outcomes of COVID, and going forward it could become a general practice. It might reduce the movement of talent pool to specific geographical locations, thus decreasing population density in metros, which will further result in reasonable real estate prices, reduced traffic and a pollution-free environment.

WGF: What more do you think can be introduced into your field of work, which would help all stakeholders?

Vikram: In my field, people should improve their level of awareness. New developments need aware, alert, open and brilliant minds. I always keep on learning new software and keep me updated with the latest developments. If I am working on automation, then I must know what is happening in the fields of automation bot and artificial intelligence. I believe that change is the only constant, and one most adopt to change very quickly.

WGF: Please share your challenges and inspirations in your personal & professional lives.

Vikram: I remember when we were implementing the open-source database system at NPCI for analytics department, which is a very niche and advanced technology. That time, it was very hard to convince the organization for its adoption; however, post-implementation its scalability and processing speed impressed our critiques, and today people are thanking us seeing its capability to handle such large volume and speed of data.
I know whenever someone tries to bring changes or implement new things one has to face challenges. So, my challenges tell me that I am on the right path.

WGF: What message would you like to give to people in general, be it succeeding in the challenging and innovative field of data analytics or living a positive life?

Vikram:  India is unique and has a great potential. If we could somehow combine our rich heritage with our advanced thoughts, we could achieve wonders in literacy and health.

Indians should believe in themselves. We have already had a high degree of adaptability and ingenuity. We are experimental in nature, and we need to develop a sense of intellect towards the growth of our nation.

Women literacy and empowerment is another area which can prove to be a game changer for India. If women could participate equally in India’s growth and development, our speed would be doubled. Indian Army has already created positions for women and have set an example. Other sections of our society and economy must follow suit.