Briefs

Maharashtra government ties up with Microsoft

The Government of Maharashtra has signed a comprehensive memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Microsoft India. The association will accelerate IT literacy in the state, enabling delivery of effective e-governance services and use of local languages for computing at the starter level.

Ravi Venkatesan, Chairman, Microsoft India, signed the MoU in the presence of Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh.

From left to right, Ravi Venkatesan, Vilasrao Deshmukh, Will Poole (Vice-president, Microsoft) and Ashok Chauhan (Minister for Industries, Government of Maharashtra)

“Our partnership with Microsoft complements our government’s focus on and vision of creating a unique edge for the state in IT. We believe that through technology we can create a skilled resource base in our state comprising the next generation of professionals, both at the grass-root level as well as in terms of high-end talent,” says Deshmukh.

According to Venkatesan, “India is today synonymous with IT success, and is mirroring the new face of IT-led development in emerging economies. We strive to be a key contributor to this success and help create a digitally-inclusive society where technology reaches out to the over one billion strong population—especially the marginalised sections at the lowest level—to realise their full potential. We seek to work closely with the Indian government for realisation of this vision.”

The collaboration of the above entails implementation of Microsoft’s Partners-in-Learning programme in the state at the school level, and its University Relations programme for academia and student engagement at the university level.

The world’s largest software company is also setting up a third IT academy in the state in addition to the two IT academies that have already been set up in Pune and Nagpur. The aim is to train over 20,000 teachers at these IT academies who in turn will train 2,00,000 students (from class III to class XII) over a five-year period.

For ushering in local language computing under the aegis of Project Bhasha, Microsoft, working in close collaboration with the state government, will roll out Marathi language interfaces for Microsoft Windows and Microsoft Office. The availability of a Marathi interface will enable IT access for the very large Marathi-speaking population of Maharashtra.