How data analyzing companies are predicting attacks on the border and around the country

Do the patrol guards at the Indian border have an inkling of when the next terror attack on the border will be? When will the next insurgency happen? It might be baffling to realize that they already have the answers thanks to data analysis.

"We have more than 20 terabytes of data on the border movement which earlier used to be recorded in physical log books of soldiers. These include thermal images, instances of people going near the fence from across the border, activity at late night etc," says 26-year old Tushar Chhabra, co-founder of Gurgaon-based driver-less truck company Cron systems, which helps the army in predicting border infiltration patterns.

Similarly, Tarun Wig, founder of Delhi-based Innefu Labs provides analytics services to Border Security Forces, Central Reserve Police Force and Police departments across the country. Using data, Innefu Labs predicts mob riots, protests, and agitations across the country. "For example, when an agitation happens anywhere across the country, there are multiple factors like social media posts, hashtags or news articles, religious group's posts. Based on these correlation metrics, we merge all the data with the intelligence data from police agencies. Then our machine language algorithm and data mining techniques help predict a protest or agitation," says Wig.

India has seen a lot of Data Analytics companies turning up in the last few years. Even though the sector is still in its nascent stage, big companies like Mu Sigma, Fractal Analytics and Cartesian Consulting, have been mushrooming all around the country.