The future of data and information is looking to be more unified, flexible, and accessible for users. Similar to the massive explosion that occurred during the Big Bang, we are currently experiencing a data explosion in various sectors. Every passing day, we witness data creation increasing at an exponential rate with 2.5 quintillion bytes of data being generated. Astonishingly, 90% of the world's data has been created only in the last two years. The analysis of colossal data provides valuable insights and information for businesses to improve decision making.

Data isn't a new concept. Measuring instruments were used centuries ago to record trading transactions, and libraries recorded written records in various languages. Today, data is experience from multiple sources such as social media posts, digital images, transaction records, and search history. Processing and analyzing such enormous data require comprehensive coding skills, domain knowledge, and statistics.

Data has become a crucial element for businesses, providing them with a competitive advantage. Consequently, most tech companies and start-ups are competing to upgrade and modernize their data. According to IDC, by 2025, almost 30% of the "Global Data sphere" will be generated in real-time, only 15% in 2017. As a result, the demand for data scientists and analysts is booming in various sectors such as finance, consulting, manufacturing, pharmaceuticals, government, and education.

The data analytics industry has already recorded a significant 26.5% year-on-year growth in 2021, with the market value reaching US$45.4 billion. In India, the Prime Minister's office is utilizing data analytics to understand the country's citizen's sentiments and ideas through crowd-sourcing platforms such as mygov.in and social media. The government has announced several initiatives in its 2022 budget, aiming to make India a data center hub for the world's growing data traffic.

While data has brought immense advantages, it comes with various challenges that must be addressed soon. Privacy and security are critical challenges surrounding data usage. Most organizations use sensitive user information for business purposes, which raises questions of data privacy and confidentiality. Additionally, much of the data being generated now is unstructured, which poses technical problems for analysts in processing it, and data storage systems could become unable to handle such colossal data.

Information has always been critical for businesses, but there has been a significant expansion in the amount of data being generated globally. As a result, businesses must develop effective strategies to manage extensive data and turn it into relevant information, keeping citizen-centric approaches in mind. Companies must ensure that the data they use is accurate, verified, and updated to reduce the chances of errors.

We can see how data has already transformed the world, but its full potential is yet to be realized.