CNN-IBN engages Cranes SYSTAT for early trends analysis

BANGALORE, INDIA: Cranes Software International Ltd (Cranes), a strategic partner to CNN-IBN, announced that it will be analyzing the findings of opinion and exit polls as well as analysis of early trends on the counting day for elections held for the Lok Sabha.

Dr. Rajeeva Karandikar, Executive Vice President at Cranes Software, a well regarded probabilist and statistician and Former Professor at the Indian Statistical Institute has been driving this exercise along with the team from the Analytics Group of Cranes. The team uses Cranes’ in-house statistical software product SYSTAT and its derivatives to analyze the data.

In January and February 2009 as a run up to the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections, the Cranes Software team again analyzed data collected during the opinion poll commissioned by CNN-IBN. The raw data was collected by CSDS -- the Center for the Study of Developing Societies under the leadership of noted psephologist, Dr. Yogender Yadav, while the statistical analysis and implications of the data on the final composition of the Lok Sabha was presented by Dr. Karandikar in a TV program anchored by Rajdeep Sardesai on CNN-IBN.

The Cranes team has been involved in assimilating, analyzing and preparing the raw data received from AC Nielsen for use in the graphics that go on air. The team at Cranes uses their powerful statistical analysis and graphics software -– SYSTAT, to run statistical models on early counting trends and make early seat projections of the final composition of the house.

The Graphics team at CNN-IBN then renders the findings into graphs which are then telecast on the CNN-IBN channel along with IBN7 (Hindi), IBN Lokmat (Marathi) and occasionally on CNBC channels. The work of Cranes Software team has proved to be critical in providing analytical data processing and facilitating error free graphics during the telecast. This exercise is to take place again during the post election coverage on CNN-IBN between May 13 and May 17, 2009.

Commenting on the partnership with Cranes Software, Rajdeep Sardesai, Editor-in-Chief, IBN Network said: “Rajeeva Karandikar of Cranes Software has been associated with CNN-IBN for all election forecasts over last three years. The back end data processing work done by the Cranes team has enhanced the content of election coverage at CNN-IBN, IBN7 and IBN Lokmat. We at IBN Network look forward to continued association with Cranes Software.”

Talking about the involvement of the Cranes team in election analysis, Dr Yogendra Yadav, Center for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS) said: “Translating vote share estimates into seats forecast continues to be one of the foremost challenges of psephology in India. Rajeeva Karandikar, one of the leading statisticians in the country, and his team from Cranes Software have advanced the frontiers of knowledge in the analysis of opinion polls and exit polls conducted by CSDS for CNN-IBN.”

Commenting on the initiative, Dr. Rajeeva Karandikar added: “Over the past few years, we at Cranes have successfully collaborated with CNN-IBN and CSDS in providing opinion and exit poll analysis as well as analysis of counting day data by leveraging our deep domain skill set and use of analytical intelligence tools of SYSTAT and Sigma. We thank CNN-IBN for their support and CSDS for domain expertise and excellent DATA collection work. We look forward to explore other opportunities to leverage our strength in the analytics domain.”

In the Analytics Domain, Cranes is a pioneer in providing statistical modeling and solutions, proof of concepts, and delivery. The company focuses on target markets of pharmaceuticals, environmental science, social science, telecom, and BFSI. The company has successfully accumulated a portfolio of proprietary products and solutions across the analytics value chain. In doing so, Cranes has built a library of reusable components, be it statistical graphing engines, computational algorithms, or data integration interfaces.

These reusable components help come up with quick prototypes of customized solutions for clients and provide enterprise class Decision Support Systems. Some products within Cranes’ portfolio in the Analytics domain include SYSTAT, iCapella, the recently acquired Cubeware range and Strategic alliances for a number of niche tools in these areas with SAP / Microsoft, etc through Dunn Solutions Group, USA.