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Ambar Singh Roy

Kolkata , Dec. 27

INDIA has been identified as the technical support hub for the structural analysis and design (STAAD) software of Research Engineers International. Bulk of the research and development activity on STAAD will also take place in India.

A technical support cell has been set up at the company's office at the Salt Lake Electronics Complex here. Besides providing technical support globally, the cell will also be responsible for global telemarketing of the STAAD software.

Research Engineers International, whose Indian operations are headquartered in Kolkata, is a division of NetGuru Inc, a Nasdaq-listed company. The group, whose major proprietary product is STAAD, has a turnover of around $30 million, according to Mr S. Bhanja, Chief Operating Officer, NetGuru India Pvt Ltd.

Mr Bhanja said STAAD was developed and introduced in the US in the late 1970s. Since then, the product has undergone periodic improvisation. A new version of STAAD has been introduced every year from 2000 onwards. The India launch of the 2005 version of STAAD, named STAAD.Pro 2005, was held here last week.

According to him, the STAAD versions and their codal specifications vary from country to country depending upon factors such as topography, weather, earthquake probability in the country, etc. While the market for STAAD in India had been sluggish initially, in the last two years, sales of the structural engineering and design software has registered a growth of around 40 per cent annually.

"The total number of installations in India has crossed 5,000. In 2005, too, we expect good business in terms of new licences, upgradation of existing ones and annual maintenance contracts", Mr Bhanja said.

He said Research Engineers was the only global player in the structural engineering and design software space to have a physical presence in India. Other global companies were offering their engineering design software in India through resellers.

"The construction sector is growing at a very fast pace in India, China and South Africa and we have a presence in all these three markets. And the company's growth in these markets will be India-led", Mr Bhanja said.

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India to be tech support hub for STAAD software

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