I am Saurav Singla, Head of Data Science and Market Innovation at the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI). I am nominating myself for the inaugural Python Packaging Council to bring the perspective of a large-scale enterprise Python user, technical leader, researcher, educator, and open-source contributor.
Python is central to the development and deployment of modern data-science, machine-learning, graph-analytics, and fraud-intelligence systems. In enterprise and high-performance computing environments, packaging decisions directly affect reproducibility, security, dependency management, installation reliability, binary compatibility, accelerator support, and the ability to move solutions safely from research into production.
My experience includes leading AI and data-science initiatives, working with Python-based machine-learning and graph-computing ecosystems, contributing to open-source technical discussions, publishing applied AI research, and authoring Machine Learning for Finance. I have also taught and mentored learners in Python, data science, and machine learning.
I would bring an important downstream-user perspective to the Council, particularly from organisations that operate regulated, security-sensitive, and large-scale systems. I am interested in improving the packaging experience for data-science and AI users, including clearer standards, reproducible environments, dependable handling of compiled and accelerator-dependent packages, better interoperability between packaging tools, and more accessible guidance for users moving from notebooks and prototypes to production systems.
As this is the inaugural Council, its members will also need to establish transparent and inclusive operating practices and build effective relationships with PyPA projects, maintainers, the Python core team, the Steering Council, the PSF, and the wider community. I would approach this responsibility through consultation, evidence-based decision-making, constructive consensus-building, and a commitment to representing the broader Python community rather than any single employer, project, or tool.
I recognise that packaging is sustained by experienced maintainers and volunteers with deep technical knowledge. My objective would be to listen carefully, learn from those maintainers, contribute an enterprise and end-user perspective, and help turn community needs into practical, interoperable, and sustainable standards.
Affiliations: National Payments Corporation of India; Python Software Foundation member; author of Machine Learning for Finance; AI and data-science researcher; and open-source contributor. My candidacy is personal, and my views would not represent my employer.