Trivandrum, Kerala:  The International Center for FOSS (IC-FOSS), an autonomous institution of the Government of Kerala, is undertaking training of students and faculty of Kerala University on FOSS-based statistical tools, with the objective of tapping requirements for Business Analytics professionals in the IT Industry. The first Industry-Academia interaction was organized on 16 June 2011 at the Kerala University campus at Trivandrum, on the theme “FOSS Tools for Business Analytics”, jointly with Dept. of Statistics and Quantilez Inc. IC-FOSS intends to hold similar programs in other areas such as Big Data, Electronic Medical Records, and 3D modeling.

Significant opportunities are emerging for FOSS-based IT Employment, in both niche and mainstream markets, according to Satish Babu, Director of Kerala Government’s International Centre for Free and Open Source Software (IC-FOSS). He was inaugurating the Industry-Academia Interaction on the topic . He said that in order to utilize these opportunities, it was important to upgrade the technical capabilities of human resources in Kerala, through programmes imparting the use of state- of-the-art tools and technologies, for University graduates and other trained sections of the workforce.

Kerala has a head-start in using and propagating FOSS-based tools and applications, with the first FOSS event held in July 2001 in Thiruvananthapuram, when the concepts and practice of FOSS was introduced into India for the first time. Since then, Kerala has made significant strides in using FOSS in the Government, public sector, and education, he said.

The seminar on FOSS-based statistical tools was the first among several technology verticals that IC-FOSS was organizing, under its broad strategy of promoting Kerala as the prime destination for high-end IT work using FOSS-based tools and technologies.

Mr. K. Balachandran, CEO, Quantilez Inc, a company based out of Glendale, California, and with its India office at Bangalore, felicitated the event. He said that Business Analytics was a fast-growing niche segment that offered good prospects for high-end statistics-based work. He said that there was currently a shortage of trained human resources in this area. He also said that FOSS-based statistical tools were now mature enough to handle such work, and that they had the added attraction of being extremely cost-effective. Kerala, with its prior exposure to Open Source, was in a good position to leverage this market niche, according to him.

Dr. P. Yageen Thomas, Head, Department of Statistics, Kerala University, welcomed the participants at the meeting. He pointed out that it would be good to have follow-up programmes in advanced use of FOSS tools in collaboration with other universities in India in order to build expertise in Kerala. Dr. E. Abdul Sathar, Department of Statistics, Kerala University, proposed a Vote of Thanks.

The programme was attended by about 100 persons including faculty members, IT professionals, and students from different institutions under the University of Kerala and Technopark.

The programme was attended by about 100 persons including faculty members, IT professionals, and students from different institutions under the University of Kerala and Technopark.