Thought Leaders in Big Data: Interview with K.R. Sanjiv, SVP Analytics and Information Management Services, Wipro (Part 6)

Sramana Mitra: And that is already exhausting the pool in Calcutta?

K. R. Sanjiv: Yes, it is getting stretched. Calcutta is a place with a lot of statistical institutes.

SM: I know, I am from Calcutta. What about the U.S.? Do you have anything going on in the U.S.?

KS: Yes. I would say 50% of the work we do for our clients is in the U.S.

SM: Where do you hire for those?

KS: Fifty to sixty percent of the work that gets done for U.S. clients gets done out of their extended ODCs. A certain percentage of people will be on sight along with the customer. Then a certain percent of the work will be offshore and done out of our Indian ODC.

SM: Just as you said that you set your confidence in Calcutta for hiring people in India, are there any such pocket in the U.S., where you have a large number of statistical or data science talent?

KS: We have, but not in an integrated pool, but spread across customers. If I am doing analytics work for a bank, for example, I would have about 10 or 15 people on sight working with the client and I would have another 15 or 20 people working in Calcutta or in any other city. They would then work together as a team for the client.

SM: In terms of hiring in the U.S., is there any specific pocket that produces more statisticians than others?

KS: We have a center in Atlanta because of the universities out there. But in terms of statistical talent I don’t think the U.S. has too many. The emerging countries have a larger population of scientists coming out. So the U.S. is broad-based. We do look at Atlanta as a good center for hiring these people. But the amount of people we are getting from certain countries like China and India is far higher as far as people with a mathematical background are concerned.

SM: Why do you think that is the case?

KS: It is just about the amount of people that come out of these countries with a math degree. If you look at the amount of people that come out of the universities with a math degree in the U.S. compared with India or China, the numbers are very different.

SM: People in the U.S. come out with more application degrees, engineering degrees, etc. as opposed to pure mathematics or pure science.

KS: That is true.

SM: It was nice talking to you.

KS: Thank you very much.

This segment is part 6 in the series : Thought Leaders in Big Data: Interview with K.R. Sanjiv, SVP Analytics and Information Management Services, Wipro
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