Its time to look back and list down the biggest analytics events in 2012 for India. 2012 was a busy year for cross border acquisitions in analytics space. And the deals were both sided i.e. Indian companies acquiring foreign firms and companies outside India investing in Indian analytics firms.

Some analytics deals where Indian firms bought foreign companies: –

• In May, Piramal acquired US-based DRG for $635 million. The Burlington, Massachusetts based Decision Resources Group (DRG) provides proprietary research on healthcare trends, clinical research and mergers & acquisitions in the biopharma industry, competing with other analytics firms such as Forrester and Elsevier. Going a step further, Piramal’s subsidiary Decision Resources Group (DRG) acquired UK-based market analytics and market access solutions firm Abacus International.
• Indian IT vendor MphasiS bought United States-based data analytics company, Digital Risk, for US$200 million in an all-cash deal.
• Wipro acquired Promax Applications Group (PAG), an Australia based Analytics Company, for 35 million Australian dollars (about Rs 191 crore).
• Crisil Ltd acquired UK-based analytics firm Coalition Development Ltd , along with its subsidiaries, for about £29 million (Rs. 250 crore). Coalition will become a part of the Crisil’s Global Research and Analytics business.

Some analytics deals where foreign firms bought Indian companies: –

• US-based consumer credit reporting agency, Equifax acquired 51% stake in Bangalore-based startup NettPositive for an undisclosed sum.
• Global credit rating agency Moody’s Corporation was seen interested, along with outsourcing firm Genpact, in bidding for investment research and analytics company Amba Research.

Equity infusion/ Capital raising was also seen happening for various Indian analytics firms: –

• Global venture fund Sequoia Capital led a Rs 50-crore investment in data analytics startup, iCreate Software. This is the second round of equity funding for the Bangalore-based venture that earlier raised funding of Rs 15 crore from technology investor IDG Ventures.
• Affine Analytics secured angel investment through Bangalore’s Financial Consulting firm FinAKS Advisory.
• Manthan Systems secured $15m in funding from Norwest Venture Partners, in Feb 2012.
• iKen Solutions Pvt Ltd, an IIT Bombay research spin-off, received an undisclosed amount in funding from India Innovation Fund (IIF).
• Fidelity Growth Partners India commits to a $20 million investment in AbsolutData

There was lot of action seen on the education front for analytics space.

• IIM Lucknow and KSB Indiana University USA jointly launched CPBAE programme. This one year Certificate Programme in Business Analytics for Executives (CPBAE) will provide cutting edge analytics knowledge.
• A business analytics lab would be soon set up at IIM Ranchi following a MoU between the institute and IBM Corporation.
• IMT Ghaziabad and Genpact Limited signed a MoU to develop and implement analytics elective for the two year PGDM program.

Other news: –

• Data Security Council of India (DSCI) a central body that helps in promoting data protection in India, developing security and privacy best practices & standards, has chosen Ugam Solutions as the winner of the “DSCI Excellence Award for Security in IT Services – SME”.
• eClerx won the 2011’s Indian Most Admired Knowledge Enterprises (MAKE) award for creating a learning organization, in Feb 2012.
• Analytics India Magazine was launched in May 2012. :)