Minor in Supply Chain Analytics
The English Press Club sat down with Dr Srikant Routroy to discuss the new minor introduced in Supply Chain Analytics. The programme consists of three core courses—Supply Chain Management, Supply Chain Modelling and Empirical Analysis, and Analytics for Supply Chain along with six electives which include Lean Manufacturing, Quality Control Assurance and Reliability, Sustainable Manufacturing, Procurement Management, Optimization, Operations Research, and Statistical Inference and Applications. Of the minor electives, Procurement Management is a newly introduced course, while the rest of the courses are pre-existing.
While speaking about the course contents, Dr Routroy explained that Supply Chain Analytics includes the procurement and analysis of large amounts of data, including Big Data, and reflection of this analysis in the decisions made by an organisation. He believed that data collection, whether qualitative or quantitative, is not useful if it is not analysed correctly. This analysis helps organisations make better, faster and more informed decisions on business operations. Dr Routroy said that the minor focuses on the importance of a local supply chain, including how it should work efficiently and satisfy all customer requirements.
This minor programme can be opted for by First Degree students. However, it will be a preferred minor course for students in Manufacturing, Mechanical, Civil, Chemical, Economics, Mathematics and Pharmacy departments. According to Dr Routroy, the number of students applying for the minor is low this year as the notice for application was sent out late by the administration. However, he was confident that this number will increase in the upcoming years. There is no upper limit on the number of students that can apply.
As for job prospects, Dr Routroy explained that companies from the manufacturing and service sectors are likely to recruit students with a minor in Supply Chain Analytics. Since many organisations, such as e-commerce giants like Amazon and Flipkart, have separate departments dedicated to Supply Chain Management, there is no dearth of job opportunities.
Minor in Computational Economics
The English Press Club sat down with the former HOD of the Economics and Finance Department, Dr Arun Kumar Giri, to discuss the newly introduced Minor in Computational Economics. The programme consists of three compulsory core courses and seven elective courses of which at least two need to be taken to meet the minimum credit requirement. The core courses are Computational Methods for Economics, Econometric Methods, and Microeconomics. The elective courses include Game Theory and its Applications, Machine Learning, Foundations of Data Science, Applied Econometrics, Advanced Microeconomics, Applied Macroeconomics, and Applied Stochastic Process. Among these, Computational Methods for Economics is a newly introduced course. Furthermore, the core course Microeconomics has Principles of Economics as its prerequisite which can be taken in 2-2. The minor is open to students of all branches except MSc. Economics as many of the above courses are available to them as CDCs or DEls. On the topic of similarity between this minor and the minors in Finance and Data Science, Dr Giri noted that the Minor in Computational Economics was concerned with the methods of data science in the context of economics and had little similarity with the finance minor.
Speaking on the significance of this minor, Dr Giri explained that the joint field of data science and economics had become increasingly important in recent times due to the collection of massive data sets in the fields of economics and finance that needed to be worked with to solve complex business problems. He further mentioned that students with an interest in data science or business analytics will greatly benefit from this programme. It will help the students to build a background in analysis of economic data which is essential for making sound economic decisions. According to Dr. Giri, some of the career options available to students through this minor include data scientist, research analyst, business analyst, and economist.
The Minor in Computational Economics will have an intake of 30 to 40 students and the reason for this, Dr Giri explained, is the limited number of computers in the computation lab of the Economics Department. He added that depending on student interest and programme outcome, the intake might be increased with infrastructural support from the IPC. He also mentioned that the Economics and Finance Department is planning to offer a minor programme in Computational Finance and a bachelor’s degree programme in Computational Economics and Finance soon.