Analytica

VOL 1, ISSUE 1 | OCTOBER 2017

Analytics Club
Indian Institute of Management
Rohtak

In this issue:
THE BLOCKCHAIN
BUZZWORD
The blockchain is claimed to be a ARTIFICIAL
magic wand that can solve all the INTELLIGENCE
complex problems.
Artificial Intelligence (AI), is the
machines ability to learn from its
TWITTER EMPLOYEE experiences and create an
intelligent system out of itself
ENGAGEMENT CAMPAIGN based on those experiences
Treating prospective employees
and interns through tweets is a
nice step of engaging employees
even before they join the
organization
OCTOBER 2019 ANALYTICS CLUB, IIM ROHTAK

Analytica Analytics club is a student driven initiative

of IIM-Rohtak, whose basic idea is to
generate and cultivate student interest in
analytics.
We organize events such as Certification
Drive, Competency Builder Events, Case
Study Competitions, Quiz Competitions
01 The Blockchain Buzzword and Online Treasure Hunt.

MEMBERS
Satyajit Roy
Akash Guru
03 Twitter Employee Engagement Utkarsh Agarwal
Campains: L’oreal Saga Preksha Dubey
Raman Kumar
Eeti Jain
Shiv Kumar Parashar
10 Blockchain Technology

12 Blockchain – A Decentralized Revolution

15 Artificial Intelligence – How much is enough?

17 News
Analytics Club, IIM Rohtak

http://analyticsiimr.weebly.com/
https://www.facebook.com/Analytics.IIMR/
Page No. 1 ANALYTICA
The Blockchain Buzzword
By Gaurav Sharma, IIM-Rohtak
If you have been attending any Business summits or
reading about technological advancements in
businesses, one word that you must have come across is
Blockchain. The word is generally used with phrases
like “The old rules don’t apply anymore”,
“revolutionize the whole industry” or “it is the future.”
All of these remind me of one more phrase “If it sounds
too good to be true, it almost certainly is.”
The blockchain is claimed to be a magic wand that can
solve all the complex problems currently plaguing
industries across the world. However, not a single
business has successfully implemented blockchain to
achieve something it couldn’t otherwise. The reason for
that is the fundamental nature of Blockchain that makes
it ridiculously impractical. The most popular of all is
Bitcoin, which is a form of cryptocurrency that has
found a widespread application on the darknet for
purchasing drugs and other illicit material due to its
anonymous nature. Even with such limited application,
the Bitcoin Blockchain in 2016 consumed more
electricity than that used by Google’s data centres
worldwide the same year.
The key proposal of Blockchain for businesses is its
decentralization. But decentralization is expensive and
inefficient. The use cases where decentralization might
offer more value, it can be achieved more efficiently
without Blockchain. Every transaction that happens on
a blockchain makes up a block and gets added to the
chain forming a Block-chain. The size of the block that
gets added to the Blockchain keeps on increasing with
time (to increase efficiency) and so does the massive
size of the chain itself. Add to it the fact that each block
is hashed and thus needs enormous complex
calculations to be cracked and added to the chain. This
makes it unfeasible for people with normal computing
power to mine these blocks as the size grows. As a result
of this, the initially decentralized Blockchain mined and
managed by many, now ends up centralized in the hands
of a few, who invest a lot of money to create customized
chips and other hardware just to mine these blocks.
Another problem with decentralization is the loss of
control. For a transaction to take place over the
ARTICLE
Blockchain mechanism, it needs to be mined. When the
process is decentralized, you need to offer an excellent
incentive to the miners to take up your block and add it
to the chain. As the number of transactions increases,
miners are bound to choose which block to mine. Due
to this, many transactions that do not offer good
incentives will be delayed or might never make it
through. For example, in case of Bitcoin, only 57% of
the transactions are confirmed in the first hour, and 20%
are never confirmed at all and dropped eventually.
To add to the problem, the existence of Blockchain
relies on the availability of data in a standardized and
organized form. To get systems talking to each other, all
the age-old data that they have needs to be converted
into one standard form across industries. This will
require tremendous human effort assuming that
everyone is open to doing so in the first place.
The decentralization offered by Blockchain has one
more benefit. It is immutable. That is, once something
has been added to the Blockchain, it cannot be changed.
But is that really a benefit? In the real business scenario,
things change all the time. Orders get cancelled, set
prices change or the people assigned to a task get
shuffled. Immutability means that even if you add the
updated data to the chain, the old one is still going to be
there to be dragged around by every user forever.
Blockchain advocates will often offer another
revolutionizing idea with Bitcoin I.e. Smart Contracts.
These are computer codes designed to be executed on
the fulfilment of specific pre-set criteria. The idea is to
replace legal agreements with these smart contracts that
are immune to human interference. But a computer code
runs on hard facts whereas laws are a function of context
and intent. No matter how precisely you define a law,
there can be circumstances in which it becomes
disputable. Therefore, it becomes necessary to ascertain
what was the intent of the parties involved. A computer
code cannot do that.
Page No. 2 ANALYTICA ARTICLE

But if that is the case, then why are so many companies

talking about Blockchain? The answer is there are not.
Businesses often use words like Blockchain to ensure
its customers that they are up to date with the latest
buzzword in the industry. Let’s explore a few examples:
IBM: It offers IBM Blockchain based on Hyperledger.
However, nobody really knows what it does. All that
you can find on the site is a dumping ground for half-
baked Blockchain experiments of other companies.
Accenture: The Blockchain offering of Accenture is the
one that makes sense. It offers its users, a centralized
authority and the option to edit the chain whenever
necessary. Both of these features are precisely the
opposite of what a Blockchain is.
Microsoft: The giant promises a Blockchain service
with both public or private Blockchain option. You can
also write smart contracts in it. All of the advantages of
it are those already offered by Decentralized
Autonomous Organisation(DAO). Also the release of
the service is scheduled for “soon” with at least some of
the offered features.
R3 Corda: The R3 Consortium’s distributed ledger is
designed for financial institutions. They understood that
what large paying customers want from their money is
the opposite of Blockchain. Hence their “Blockchain
Product” in its default state, does not contain a
Blockchain.
It is important to understand the difference between
what the Blockchain technology might be capable of, if
all its fundamental problems are addressed, and what it
can do. Can blockchain really handle the scale of your
data? How will you deal with the different formats of
data? Given the immutability of Blockchain, how will
you resolve errors? What unique value proposition does
Blockchain offer you that existing technologies cannot?

Citations
https://bitcoinmagazine.com/articles/interview-jeffrey-
smith-cio-ghash-io-1403528672/

http://www.datacenterknowledge.com/google-data-center-
faq-part-2/

https://arxiv.org/abs/1704.01414

https://www.hyperledger.org/projects
Page No. 3 ANALYTICA ARTICLE

TWITTER EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT

CAMPAIGNS: L’OREAL SAGA
By Akash Bhatia, IIT-Kharagpur

Introduction: L’Oreal is world's largest cosmetics Alignment of L’Oreal’s employee engagement

company and has developed activities in the field on Honey comb model:
of cosmetics, concentrating on hair color, skin care,
Identity: People share personal information freely
sun protection, make-up, perfume and hair care.
on some social media, but care how it's used by
L’Oreal’s advertising slogan is "Because I'm worth
other parties. Different networks are distinct in
it". By utilizing #lifeatloreal, employees have an
how they approach these preferences, which
opportunity to share fun events, communicate
companies need to keep in mind.
across borders, and build connections.
#LorealCommunity was created and promoted to
show the friendships and connections that existed
inside of the company among employees. It gives
employees an opportunity to share their successes
and positive experiences with one another, building
to concept of community by allowing employees to
tell their stories through Instagram. The campaign
saw results and usage within the company, but also
opened the door to reach out to potential employees
as well. Operating with the assumption that
employees voices matter and that they impact the
business has been a drive behind L’Oreal push for
employee engagement.
Treating prospective employees and interns
Honey Comb’s model to measure effectiveness
through these tweets is a nice step of engaging
of campaign:
employees even before they join the organization.
Tweeting such tweets with #lifeatLoreal and
@Lorealcareers helps to reach this post to the
people who are going to apply at various positions
at L’oreal. When such tweets are tweeted, the
person/employee tagged in such pictures tend to re-
tweet such tweets again and again. Thus, the post
get maximum reach among users on Twitter.

Conversations: The pace of a conversation is

much faster on Twitter than that on series blog
posts, which means that the tone can quickly
change. Firms need to be conscious about when and
how they engage, and when a response is expected
or appropriate.
Page No. 4 ANALYTICA
#LifeatLoreal and #lorealcommunity got a huge
appreciation on Twitter not only from the
employees, but also from various HR, social media
analysts and other Twitter users across the world.
This really created a unique image of L’oreal HR
interventions across the industry. These campaigns
are regarded as one of the most successful and
efficient online employee engagement activities
Other Twitter accounts also talk about the culture
at L’oreal through #LifeatLoreal. Sharing pictures
like above tell us that how much smooth and
friendly the culture is there at L’oreal. Also,
employees feel proud in being a part of L’oreal
ARTICLE
that are conducted on such a large scale across the
globe.
Reputation: Social media platforms allow users to
identify each others' standing and reputation, by for
example, followers on Twitter views. Companies
may want metrics that measure the quality in
addition to the quantity of engagement.
family when they see posts like these. People other
than the employees of L’oreal, when talk about the
lucrative culture of L’oreal leaves a deeper impact
on social media.
Page No. 5 ANALYTICA ARTICLE

Sharing: It represents the extent to which users

exchange, distribute, and receive content. The term
‘social’ often implies that exchanges between
people are facilitated by a shared object.

Tweets about other departments help to share

technical expertise among employees. This is a
nice way to share knowledge and enhance
engagement among employees. These initiatives
also help the employees to understand the
L’Oreal’s various processes and business insights.
Page No. 6 ANALYTICA ARTICLE

The above tweet shows that how an employee is

sharing the various insights of the marketing
division over there at L’oreal. Such sort of tweet
helps to share the internal activities and culture of
the organization. Also, other employees feel good
about the organization and feel a sort of connect
with the organization if such sort of tweets come on
a regular interval.
Sharing inspiring thoughts and quotes has been a
trend with L’oreal via #lifeatloreal. When
employees get such sort of thoughts on a regular
basis, then they feel motivated towards their work.
Such initiatives indulge a sense of positivity among
employees.

Presence: It represents the extent to which users

can know if other users are accessible. It includes
knowing where others are, in the virtual world
and/or in the real world, and whether they are
available.
Showcasing the lucrative part of L’oreal office
with #LifeatLoreal on occasions like Labor Day
leaves a deep impact on company’s image. Also
hash-tagging labor day with #LifeatLoreal helps to
spread the post across Twitter. This helps to reach
the post to maximum people on Twitter. It creates
a quite niche image about corporate offices of
L’oreal.
Introducing the already working employees is a
nice initiative by #lifeatLoreal. It gives a
motivational sense to the employees who are
already working at L’oreal. Also, it gives a
platform to other employees to know their
subordinates at different location. Employees can
connect to these tagged employees and can further
substantify their relationship.
Page No. 7 ANALYTICA ARTICLE

Employees across the globe tend to share their

pictures and experiences at L’oreal through
#LifeatLoreal campaign. This initiative enhanced a
sense of belongingness among the employees.
Also, the prospective employees feel motivated to
join the organization by seeing such tweets.
Groups: The functional block represents the extent
to which users can form communities and sub-
communities.

Relationships: It represents the extent to which

users can be related to other users. By ‘relate,’ we
mean that two or more users have some form of
association that leads them to converse, share
objects of sociality, meet up, or simply just list each
other as a friend or fan.

Employees share the videos of their parties and fun

activities with #LifeatLoreal. This creates an image
that L’oreal is a fun loving organization. Also,
subordinate employees feel a sense of connect
when they see that some of their happy moments
are cherished by L’oreal on social media. Again a
sub stance step in enhancing employee
engagement.
Page No. 8 ANALYTICA ARTICLE

appreciable step. This thing is also solving the

problem of both internal branding and external
branding.

L’oreal conducted an international level

competition Brandstorm in 2015 and 2016. All the
countries where there is a L’oreal head office,
participated in this competition. This competition
was publicized through #LifeatLoreal campaign
resulting in huge participation from all the L’oreal
employees. Such initiative of conducting an
international level competition among the
employees of L’oreal and publicizing it through
Twitter obviously enhance engagement among the
employees. Also, sharing the details of winner on
Twitter boosts the morale of the employees.
Employees tend to share their friendship stories
and success sagas with #lifeatloreal. Thus,
employees are spreading the engagement tales that
are already persisting at L’oreal. These initiatives
does internal and external branding for the
organization automatically.
Employees share their sense of satisfaction while An analysis of these campaigns is done on
working at L’oreal through #LifeatLoreal hashtag hootsuite and following results came out of it. As
on Twitter. They also share their Instagram images in the hootsuite, we can see that the engagement
of their L’oreal office. This is very important level increased from 2013 to 2014 to 2015. Thus,
when an organization wants to attract top talent the engagement activities on Twitter were also
from the market. L’oreal gives liberty to its increasing in that period.
employee to share such tweets with the hashtag
#LifeatLoreal. This HR policy is again an
Page No. 9 ANALYTICA ARTICLE

Conclusion:
Employees share their sense of satisfaction while
working at L’oreal through #LifeatLoreal hash tag
on Twitter. They also share their Instagram images
of their L’oreal office. This is very important
when an organization wants to attract top talent
from the market. L’oreal gives liberty to its
employee to share such tweets with the hash tag
#LifeatLoreal. This HR policy is again an
appreciable step. This thing is also solving the
problem of both internal branding and external
branding.
#LifeatLoreal and #LorealCommunity got a huge
appreciation on Twitter not only from the
employees, but also from various HR, social media
analysts and other Twitter users across the world.
This really created a unique image of L’oreal HR
interventions across the industry. These campaigns
are regarded as one of the most successful and
efficient online employee engagement activities
that are conducted on such a large scale across the
globe.
These employee engagement programs are
benchmark for other organizations to how to
attract top talent from the industry and further
engage them. These initiatives are the need of
the hour and are obviously new trends in HR
domain.
Page No. 10 ANALYTICA ARTICLE

BLOCKCHAIN TECHNOLOGY
By Amit Kumar Behera, IIM-Rohtak

One of the most exciting feature of technology is WHAT IS IT?

that it continues to evolve. We cannot expect it to
Now we should try to understand what is the
become stagnant, as then the whole purpose of
concept behind the working of a blockchain
having it is lost. There is no doubt that it adds value
technology. We can consider it to be an online file
to our lives, but as our needs and preferences keep
or spreadsheet which is distributed across several
on changing, we need different technologies at
computer systems called nodes across a network
different periods of time. Now a new technology is
with every single node acting as an administrator.
around the corner, and it has started bringing with
This shows that the blockchain technology is a
itself various new dimensions to the various routine
decentralized system as there is no central
processes that we conduct in our lives. Though it
administration or single node where all the data
was initially meant for some other purpose with
entered is stored. We can share our information
which it is still identified, it is not restricted to that
across the designated network. Whenever the
now. This is the BLOCKCHAIN TECHNOLOGY.
network accepts an information, it validates it with
Originally designed for the handling of
a set of algorithms for its authenticity and only after
cryptocurrencies (Digital Currency).
that it accepts it for storage. Once the data is
HISTORY accepted, it is added to the similar set of data which
are in the form of blockchain. These keep adding
The entity for which the blockchain technology
on and form an array of blockchains containing
was designed was a ‘’cryptic’’ one. It means that it
data which would be used to perform similar
was coded using such designs that it was not easy
functions. Also, these blockchains are permanent
to hack or get into the systems holding these. Now
and unalterable. Besides, the data is checked every
the blockchain technology is itself a very cryptic as
15 minutes for any possible updates. These checks
we still have ambiguity about its founders. The first
and balances are automated inside the network and
work on cryptographically secured block of chains
are done promptly once new data is received.
was started by Stuart Haber and W. Scott Stornetta
in 1991. They in fact incorporated the technology HOW DOES IT WORK?
in Hash Tree or Merkle Tree model which was used
As mentioned earlier, Blockchain Technology
in large data structures for verification and storage
started its largescale use in the Bitcoin
a year later in 1992. In 2008, a group/individual
cryptocurrency handling. Cryptocurrencies like
named Satoshi Nakamoto started the first
Bitcoin are very popular nowadays as their value
distributed blockchain feature as a part of the
has been increasing rapidly. Recently their value
digital currency Bitcoin, which was a type of ledger
increased to more than $5000 USD. Though it is no
for its transactions. A ledger is a book or a
guarantee that this value will remain as high as this
computer file which records all economic
for a long time, as it may decrease or even crash,
transactions of a company or an individual. It is still
there is an increase in the popularity of Bitcoins.
not known whether Satoshi Nakamoto is an
The blockchain technology enables it to accept
individual or a group who started this feature in
transactions which is then verified and all the
Bitcoin.
relevant information stored across a large network.
Page No. 11 ANALYTICA ARTICLE

It is encrypted in a very robust way to prevent any risk was recently highlighted when major bitcoin
misuse. Customers are provided with two keys companies of US and South Korea were hacked.
called the Public Key and Private Key. The Public Though these hacks did not affect the funds, they
key acts as the User-ID using which the customers were storing, but it was a pointer to what increased
will enter into the network and access the Bitcoin level of risks that it could face in the future. It is
transactions and other digital assets. But they also fighting for its reliability with respect to Banks
cannot do it without the private key that acts as the and other financial institutions.
password to enter the network. With this
APPLICATIONS
mechanism the information entering a blockchain
network becomes incorruptible. Due to this robust The major application of this technology would be
technology behind cryptocurrency, now we have in:
close to 700 Bitcoin-like cryptocurrencies in the
world which shows its increasing popularity and 1. Executing small contracts which would
acceptance. only be processed when certain conditions
are met
STRENGTHS 2. Elimination of third-party in many
transactions would lead to a shared
Now that we have a good understanding of how this
economy
technology works, we can assess the strengths of
3. Help in the establishment of crowdfunding
such a technology. One of the most visible
networks
strengths is its durability and robustness. It does not
4. With its transparency features, it can be
have any specific point where it can be targeted to
used to store electoral database
bring it down as it is evident from the large number
5. Some companies in US have been started
of nodes that it has. Another feature of this
supply chain auditing using blockchain
technology supporting its robustness is that it
technology
cannot be controlled by a single entity. This quality
6. Can be used for the protection of
of the technology also makes it a decentralized
intellectual property rights
system. Another important feature that it can boast
7. Find application in Internet of Things (IoT)
of is its transparency, which is in short supply
by aiding automation of remote systems
nowadays (no pun intended). By design, this
8. In shared economy help in Identity
technology is fully public, and everything stored in
Management
here is in public domain. The blockchain
9. Anti-money laundering and know-your-
technology is a series of similar data which is put
customer practices have application in this
into a network of blockchains. This means that if
technology
one wants to make any changes in a single unit, he
10. In stock trading, it can eliminate
would have to change the entire network. This
intermediaries by assisting peer-to-peer
lends the technology its incorruptible character.
transaction
Many of its benefits will further be visible once this
technology is put into more use. But it does not
come without its some of weaknesses.
LAST WORD
WEAKNESSES
Blockchain technology has a good future ahead
The major weakness of this technology is its due to the large scope of application it can offer. It
anonymous nature. We never really know who is can have far-reaching impact on the banking and
controlling what. This risk becomes even more financial services industry. Recently Goldman
significant when we consider blockchain Sachs has started using Bitcoin in a small scale to
technology use in the financial sector. Another
Page No. 12 ANALYTICA
test its potential. Though there are many critics of
this move, it has shown that big names in the
financial sector have started giving this concept a
look as to how it can be further used for the
benefit of all. This gives an immense credibility to
this technology going forward. A very significant
development related to blockchain was the
banning of any cryptocurrency transaction in
China. This event led to some early jitters for
BLOCKCHAIN – A DECENTRALIZED
REVOLUTION
By Tabish, NIT-Srinagar
Yap is a small island spanning a few hundred
square kilometres in the western Pacific Ocean.
The island is rather famous for its rather
unconventional ‘stone money’, known as Rai,
which are doughnut shaped, carved disks, up to 4
meters in diameter. Most of these ‘coins’ were
mined and shaped in the neighbouring island called
Palau, about 650km away. The complex mining
process, coupled with overseas travel and hostility
of Palau Island, brought additional value to the
coins. Death of one or more navigators in the
ARTICLE
people who have invested in Bitcoins as they
feared other world governments may soon follow
suit. It did not play out the way many had feared,
and in fact, the value of bitcoins has increased
according to recent trends. Let us hope this
innovative technology is put to good use and finds
its application in numerous other fields so that it
can benefit all.
gruelling transport process further inflated the
value. The holes in the middle of these coins allow
them to be mounted on massive wooden poles. Any
transaction required several men to lift the coin and
carry it to its new owner. This cumbersome task
bought with it the risk of damaging the valuable
coin. To avoid this risk, the villagers would leave
the stone coins where they were, even if the owners
changed. The islanders maintained a mental record
of who owned what and referred to this distributed
community record
Page No. 13 ANALYTICA ARTICLE

of who owned what and referred to this distributed illegitimate manipulation of a blockchain based
community record when dispute arose. This ledger is close to impossible.
process had no involvement of any third parties as
it relied on the community consensus.
Compared to this time-honoured system of the Yap
Island, the more common system to keep track of
currency or other services involves the use of
records that are held and maintained by some 3rd
party intermediates who broker transactions of any
value between people and groups. All such records,
stored in the form of ‘ledgers’, are held by and Blockchain has been called the ‘next big thing’
centrally controlled by these intermediaries. Banks after the internet. With blockchain technology, the
and credit agencies are basic examples of these web gains a new layer of functionality. The
third parties. In the digital realm, the need for such applications are numerous. The first ever
‘brokers’ is even more as tokens of any value and implementation of the blockchain in the form of
of any kind may be digitally replicated numerous blockchain based digital currencies is already
times where each copy is a perfect replica of the challenging the role of banks by offering
original. The issue, however, with such third party decentralization, distributiveness and security.
systems is that they tend to have a great deal of Bitcoin is the first real application of the
authority over the goods or services that they blockchain and its prices have risen by more than
broker. Because of this centralized authority and a 5000% in just the last year. It has been suggested
lack of transparency, the illicit tampering of these that the blockchain will do to banking what the
record is not an uncommon occurrence. The actual internet did to media. The value of a decentralized
owners of the services that these 3rd parties broker and distributed financial system is intangible. IBM
can only make requests to make changes in the estimates about 15% banks will be utilizing
records. As such, the true owners have little true blockchain by 2018. Banks like Barclays have
authority. already taken measures to incorporate blockchain
into their ecosystem. The Government of India
Blockchain works in a fashion similar to the
itself is planning on introducing a currency based
traditional currency system of the Yap Islanders. It
on the blockchain.
is a stunning upgrade of the traditional ledger.
Blockchain is a software that provides an open,
decentralized database for any transaction
involving value which includes, but not limited to,
money, goods, property, work or votes. In the
simplest form, blockchain makes the ‘ledger’ of
records available and accessible to anyone
connected to the network. Further, it allows any
node of the network to maintain its own copy of the
ledger and add transactions as they occur. Before a
transaction is added permanently to the blockchain,
it is verified across all the ledgers. As such, the
authenticity of records is verified by a community.
This eliminates the need for a 3rd party to act as the
verification providers as the same is now handled
by community consensus. Traditional ledgers,
stored in any form, are tamperable, however,
Page No. 14 ANALYTICA
True democracy in governments and voting
systems is a controversial topic. Government
processes tend to be slow and ineffective. The
inability of the masses to closely monitor and track
the changes in a complex bureaucratic system
hinders democracy. Blockchain based government
system, however, can reduce bureaucracy, increase
security, efficiency and transparency. Dubai is
already planning on putting up their official
documents on blockchain by 2020.
A public voting system implemented on the
blockchain could enable the shifting of the entire
process online. The underlying technology could
easily provide the security for such a system. The
ability for everyone to see the changes in the record
in real time would eliminate the possibilities of
issues like vote counting frauds. It is a fool-proof
way of enforcing true democracy in our
governmental systems. Blockchain simply brings
the power back into the hands of the people.
Blockchain also provides other promising avenues
in fields such as IOT, insurance, privacy, digital
media and more. Through IOT, devices can be
made communicate directly with each other to
update software, manage bugs and monitor energy
usage. Smart devices could be set up with their own
‘virtual accounts’ so that the next time your printer
runs out of ink, it can automatically purchase a new
cartridge off the internet. Digital media creators
can benefit from the blockchain by directly
connecting with their audience and transacting with
them without the need of intermediaries through
smart contracts.
ARTICLE
The greatest innovations that we have witnessed all
have a single thing in common. They fill a deep
void in the human society. They provide solutions
to problems that we have long faced. Be it the
printing press that filled the knowledge gap or the
internet that filled the communication gap. The
blockchain is no different. At the core of it, the
blockchain fills a void that has been a part of the
human race since the beginning. It fills the void of
trust. It does so by providing a new method through
which we rely on any service. Trust is a
fundamental requirement of any business and any
transaction. The blockchain brings digital
exchanges close to the level of physical exchanges.
It puts the authority over a service back into the
hands of the people who own that service. Any
system employing the block chain provides
transparency, reliability and dependability and thus
instils a sense of confidence in the participants in
that system. No more missed transactions, human
or machine errors, or even an exchange that was not
done with the consent of the parties involved.
The world of blockchain is just starting to make
waves in various sectors. Right now is a great
opportunity for ordinary people to be involved in
and be a part of a potentially ground-breaking
innovation that could immensely change our social,
political and economic institutions. You can see the
Bitcoin chain in action by visiting a service like
blockexplorer.com or even invest some of your
money into Bitcoin or other such
Page No. 15 ANALYTICA
cryptocurrencies to get a sense of how efficiently
the system functions and all the benefits it offers.
The blockchain is one of the most fundamental
inventions in the history of computer science.
Artificial Intelligence – How much is enough?
By Siddharth Ganthade, IIM Rohtak
In todays’ world, we are witnessing an
unprecedented growth in technology and consistent
focus on innovation and development in each and
every facets of digital forces surrounding us.
Artificial Intelligence (AI), is the machines ability
to learn from its experiences and create an
intelligent system out of itself based on those
experiences. The concept of AI has been out there
since a long time but the actual formal foundation
of AI is said to have taken place in the year 1956
by John McCarthy. Today AI is considered as one
of the leading digital forces out there and it has
shown a very promising though a bit of a
worrisome growth in the recent past. AI has
multiple implications for companies using it, and
has applications ranging from speech recognition,
threat detection, diagnosis of diseases and many
more. With many companies focusing on AI for
business development and process improvement,
the growth of AI is surely going to be much faster
than it has been any time before.
A survey conducted in the United States of
America put forth that about 43% of Americans
believe that AI pose a threat to the survival of
human civilization in the long run. Also, loss of
jobs to AI was amongst the most feared AI threats
according to the same survey. With movies such as
Arnold Schwarzenegger starrer ‘Terminator’ and
Oscar nominated ‘Ex-Machina’ which if not
amongst the first, were definitely amongst the most
profound movies to have reflected on the possible
negative consequences of development of AI,
threat of AI is perceived by an even larger base of
population. At the same time Joaquin Phoenix
starrer ‘Her’ sheds light on how in an advanced
ARTICLE
Blockchain is where the real excitement is. This
technology has the ability to revolutionize entire
industries.
society, software programs with AI could develop
intriguing intimate relationship with humans,
which can raise a reasonable doubt and threat to the
very fundamentals of the human civilization, i.e.,
socialization. Though the scenario as depicted in
the movie can be a cheerful experience for some as
it explores a totally untouched aspect of our life,
but the question that arises here is if we are ready
to make a trade-off between convenience and the
jeopardy of losing the so called ‘human touch’
after-all.
In the wake of recent event which happened at the
Facebook Artificial Intelligence Research (FAIR)
laboratory wherein a software program which was
intended to let two bots communicate strictly
following a specific protocol, had developed a new
language to communicate on its own. A lot of
concerns have been raised over the security against
such instances and the degree of freedom to be
provided to these AI programs in order to curb the
possible damage they could cause. Even though
this unexpected event had no to minimal
damage/threat as it was run in a very controlled
environment, but it had lot of experts consider the
possibility of disruption it could create if such
projects/simulations go out of hand. Engineer and
inventor Elon Musk who has readily made his
views on AI clear and stated that AI can be a reason
to cause the third World War and that we should be
aware of it, soon after which the mishap at FAIR
laboratory took place. Bill Gates, founder of
Microsoft has also expressed his concerns
regarding AI and stated that an AI system could
enslave the entire human civilization in a time span
as less as half-a-century.
Page No. 16 ANALYTICA
Finally, looking towards the most primitive and
most asked questions on AI and radically thinking
over it, the question of loss of job can be answered
based on empirical evidences such as the time of
industrial revolution when industrialization was
seen as a threat to most of the jobs that existed then,
which is not really the case as we see it now. The
jobs with much of repeat effort/labour will
definitely be replaced by AI enabled machines thus
increasing the overall efficiency, while the jobs
which require human intervention on a logical and
decision-making level will most probably always
be safe with humans, so the loss of jobs to AI is not
as grave a danger as it is generally perceived to be.
As far as the question on survival of human
civilization as a whole is considered, it remains to
ARTICLE
be seen and we better not try to explore it. We
humans have been always encouraged by the
potential outcomes of new inventions and it has
since ages fuelled our curiosity. The idea of AI is
quite similar, i.e., learn from past experiences and
look for newer opportunities to learn from. But in
order to ensure the survival and prosperity of
human life on earth, it is the need of the hour that a
set of standard guidelines, rules and regulations are
strictly mandated. This shall ensure not missing out
on potential opportunities from AI and at the same
time in curbing negative fallouts.
Page No. 17 ANALYTICA
Google’s AI Creates Much Better Machine-
Learning Code Than Its Makers
Google’s AutoML system, introduced back in
May, has recently produced machine-learning
codes with higher efficiency than those made by its
developers themselves. AutoML was developed as
a solution to fill lack of top-notch talent in AI
programming. To meet the demand for experts,
Google developed AutoML to create self-learning
code, and in a way, clone itself. Moreover,
AutoML scored an 82% efficiency while sorting
images based on their content. It was also given the
task of locating multiple objects within an image.
The code that AutoML wrote scored 43% while the
best human-built program scored 39%.
Alien: Covenant Follow-Up Main Focus On
Artificial Intelligence
Of all the big hits coming out this year Alien:
Covenant will be the most awaited. The Ridley
Scott directed ‘monsters-in-space’ horror movie, is
about the creation and end of the world. The shift
in emphasis is set to be taken into the future of the
series, as Scott has revealed the forthcoming sequel
will focus more on AI than the aliens.
Indian Cops Have Big Plans On Using Big Data To
Prevent And Solve Crimes
Recently, the National Crime Records Bureau
(NCRB) is trying to use crime-related data
analytics software to enable predictive policing
techniques so that crime can be stopped
beforehand. Hyderabad-based Advanced Data
Research Institute (ADRIN) is developing a special
software so that law enforcement agencies can map
crime patterns and predictive analysis. “Not only
offences, it will go a long way in predicting
terrorist and Maoist attacks as well,” NCRB
director Ish Kumar said.
NEWS
Data Analytics, Social Media Trends To HelpBoost
Security At Airports, Nuclear Bases
Data analytics and social media trends will be used
for the first time in ensuring and monitoring
security at the nation’s most vital assets such as
airports, aerospace and nuclear installations. The
Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), the
national agency assigned to secure these assets, has
started a maiden and novel Social media trends and
Media lab -- the Pattern Research For Institutional
Social Media (PRISM) analytics -- at its HQ in
Arakkonam nearby Chennai. The 1.80 lakh
personnel-strong CISF is assigned to secure 59
airports and other vital installations under the
command of the home ministry.
Big Data Analytics To Become A $16 Billion
Industry By 2025: Experts
Big data analytics sector in India is likely to witness
a 700% growth to reach $16 billion by 2025 from
$2 billion currently, industry experts said.
According to experts, India is now among the top
10 big data analytics markets in the world.
However, Nasscom has set a competitive target of
making the country one among the top three
markets in the next three years. The government,
industry and academia can collaborate to build an
ecosystem to generate sustainable solutions by
harnessing the power of big data and digital
innovation," WNS Global Services Group CEO
Keshav Murugesh said.
JPMorgan strategy’s AI to predict global markets
At the world’s most prominent debt dealer, traders can
face trouble making sense of all the action that
happens. Hence JP Morgan Chase & Co is fetching
artificial intelligence to provide them a picture of the
complete trading floor – and even predict where
markets are going. MSX, a data analytics and
machine-learning program, is being deployed in the
bank’s fixed-income sales and trading operations,
Page No. 18 ANALYTICA NEWS

New York-based JPMorgan said in a statement. AI and the demand for big data analytics jobs will
will compile data from all desks and orders to give continue to rise in the coming quarters.
traders and salespeople a more precise picture in real
The Analytics & Data Science India Jobs Study
time and will help them anticipate market moves.
2017 by Analytics India Magazine & Edvancer, one
Developed by London-based start- up Mosaic Smart
of India’s top online analytics training institute,
Data, the program is already being used in
suggests that the number of analytics jobs have
JPMorgan’s rates trading.
increased nearly 100% in the last year from April
2016 to April 2017, with close to 50,000 positions
related to analytics currently available to be filled
India has 50000 new job opportunities in Analytics
in India. This increase is at nearly twice the rate in the
At a time when India’s IT industry is facing
previous year and suggests an increase in momentum
challenges in the form of layoff and other
of hiring in analytics and data science in India.
uncertainties, a new study reveals that the number of
analytics jobs has nearly doubled in the past one year

Analytics Club
Indian Institute of Management Rohtak
MDU Campus, Rohtak, Haryana
For any queries, feedback or comment mail to
analyticsclub@iimrohtak.ac.in
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