SAS to set up Kolkata centre

SAS Institute India, the business intelligence software and service provider, plans to set up an analytical centre in Kolkata in association with North Carolina State University and Indian Statistical Institute (ISI). The company is also in talks with many retail giants for the deployment of their retail products and services.

“In September 2006, we started the intensive one-year professional master’s degree in data analytics for North Carolina State University. I think ISI is the best statistical institute in the country and we want to tap this resource pool as we need people from statistical background for analysis.

Hence, I want to set up an analytics centre in Kolkata in association with ISI and North Carolina State University. I am planning to get more details on this over summer. We might look for awarding scholarships to students from ISI and student exchanges with North Carolina State University,” said Amitava Ghosh, vice-president, research and development, SAS India.

“Our India office is the largest research and development office outside the US. We have developed 16 products from India in the past six years out of which two are completely made in India. One of these caters to supply relationship management for the manufacturing sector. The other product is a demand planning and forecasting for retail sector.

Retail is a great opportunity and we are in a process of discussions with a lot of major retail giants for deployment of our products,” said Sudipta Sen, CEO and managing director of SAS India.