Can India be a hub for Android apps?.
In a move to give fillip to the android application developer ecosystem in India, technology major Google has introduced a new program called ‘Android Nanodegrees’.
The programme is being introduced in India through Google’s partnership with Udacity, a US-based for-profit educational organisation which offers massive open online courses (MOOC). Presently, India is the second largest market for the company, contributing around 7 per cent of its total online student base. “While India has millions of software developers, we still lag in creating world-class applications.
With the launch of this programme, we want to bridge the gap for the developer community by giving an easy access to learn and build high-quality apps,” said said Rajan Anadan, vice-president and managing director, Google South East Asia and India. With the significant growth in developer population in the country, Google, which operates the Android marketplace Play, aims to make India as the largest contributor. In India, Google and Tata Trust together are looking to give 1000 scholarships for students across the country to cover the cost of the program that is priced at Rs,9,800 a month. “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. Under this students who qualify certain criteria under the programme will receive 1,000 scholarships, out of which of 500 will be offered by Tata Trust.
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 its blog.