Google Launches Online IT Degrees in India

In a move to utilize the country's developer community, Google teams up with Udacity to offer online IT degrees.

Sunder Pichai led Google is all set to make India a hub for global and local app development. Taking a step towards this goal, the company is offering a short-term course to train the developer community in the country. Search engine giant Google and Udacity launched IT courses in India.

Google has partnered with Udacity, an online-education company founded by Sebastian Thrun [founder of Google’s X lab and self-driving car]. Google has committed $4 million towards the course internationally. The pair teamed with Indian conglomerate Tata to offer online technical training courses, focusing on teaching software developers to build apps for Android and the Google-backed mobile operating system. It comprises of courses developed and taught by experts from the Google Developer Relations team. It will also include project reviews, mentorship and career services from Udacity.

 “With over 381 million internet enabled mobile phone subscriptions in India, there is a growing demand for the internet as a multi-purpose solution provider. Through this initiative, Tata Trusts helps build the digital ecosystem to empower communities,” said Ganesh Neelam, Development Manager, Tata Trusts.

India has the second largest app developer population in the world - with over 3 million coders, standing only next to the US. However, only less than 2% of apps built in India feature in top 1000 apps globally. Google wants to raise this metric to 10% in next three years. The company believes that India holds the potential of becoming number one by 2018 with 4 million developers.

Costing Rs. 9,800 a month, the degrees will take between 6 to 9 months to complete, with lessons from Google instructors based in the United States. Students will get 50 percent of tuition costs back on graduation. As a part of the programme, 1000 scholarships will be offered to deserving students by Google and Tata Trusts. The students will be awarded with Android Developer Nanodegrees, and will be invited to a job fair next year hosted by Google in India.

"While India has millions of software developers, we still lag behind in creating world-class apps," Google India managing director Rajan Anandan told reporters in India's IT hub of Bangalore. He stated that, with the launch of this new IT degree programme, Google is opening a window of opportunities to the developer community by giving an easy access to learn and build high-quality apps.

“The course will cover fundamentals to advanced development skills, as well as Google Play services and material Design. Real-life projects, like designing a media player and using Google’s services to build apps, will be graded by a global network of 300 code reviewers”, Udacity said in a blog.

The launch comes as Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi heads to Silicon Valley as part of a visit to the US, seeking foreign investment in India's start-ups as well as financial tie-ups. He is expected to reassure IT CEOs of efforts to reduce red tape, and make it easier to do business in India for software development companies in the US.

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