Google announces scholarship for 1.3 lakh tech developers and students in India

To skill Indian talents for upcoming technologies, Google has announced a scholarship programme that will help train 1.3 lakh technology developers and students in India.

As per scholarship scheme, the internet giant will fund 100,000 scholarships on the Pluralsight technology learning platform and 30,000 scholarships on Udacity platform.

The programme will allow students gain access to advanced learning curriculum and further their employability in mobile and web development, machine learning, augmented and virtual reality, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Cloud platforms.

"The scholarship programme is in tandem with our's aim to train two million developers in India. The country is the second largest developer ecosystem in the world and is bound to overtake the US by 2021," said William Florance, Developer Products Group and Skilling Lead for India, Google.

In 2015, the company's CEO Sundar Pichai had stated that the global Internet search engine giant will train 2 million new android developers in the next three years in India.

"In the last one year, we have engaged over half a million students and developers across India through a variety of programmes and initiatives. Since we announced our skilling initiative in India, 210,000 students have completed developed courses on Udacity, with 117,000 students completing the course this year," added Florance.

Comparing India and China eco-system, he said India needs to adopt innovation in order to be par with China. There is an urgent need to upskill and reskill India's technology workforce, he added.

Google partnership with Pluralsight and Udacity

India's tech workforce is going through a phase of transition.

"We are thrilled to partner with Google to help developers across India understand their skill level using Pluralsight IQ and advance their skill sets in four key roles: Android Developer, Mobile Web Specialist, Cloud Architect and Data Engineer," said Arun Rajamani, Country Head and General Manager, Pluralsight.

"With this scholarship programme, students can master web and mobile development skills with the experts from both firms," added Ishan Gupta, Managing Director-Udacity India.

In Sept, both firms had collaborated to fund 75,000 scholarship to promote young talent.