Microsoft To Make 75,000 Indian Women Developers AI-Ready By 2025

Microsoft chairman and chief executive Satya Nadella said the company plans to skill and certify 75,000 women developers in India in 2024 in cloud, AI, and digital technology sectors. The tech major is undertaking this initiative as a part of the expansion of its ‘Code; Without Barriers’ programme in India. 

Nadella made the announcements while addressing 1,100 developers and technology leaders at the Microsoft AI Tour in Bengaluru on Thursday (February 8). 

“This next generation of AI is changing how and what developers build everywhere, including in India. It’s fantastic to see how India’s developer community is applying our technology and tools to build the future for India and the world,” Nadella said. 

Microsoft aims to democratise access to tech skills nationwide through its ‘Code; Without Barriers’ initiative. The company launched the programme in 2021 in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand, Philippines, South Korea, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.

Under the programme, Microsoft provides skills and certification in cloud and AI to women developers. It also provides support, training, and networking opportunities to female developers and coders, and those in other technical roles.

For this, it has partnered with companies like Accenture, AvePoint, Government Big Data Institute (GBDi), HCL Technologies, Just Analytics, and MetLife. 

Microsoft also said that India is the fastest-growing market on GitHub, its software collaboration and innovation platform, with 13.2 million developers using the platform. 

“It is expected to overtake the US as the largest developer community on GitHub by 2027. India also has the second-highest number of generative AI projects on GitHub after the United States,” the company said.

Microsoft is bullish on the AI talent in India. It has made a number of new announcements during Nadella’s trip to India, including training 2 Mn Indians in artificial intelligence (AI) by 2025.

Earlier today, Bengaluru-based Sarvam AI also announced a partnership with Microsoft to build solutions on the tech giant’s cloud services, including Azure OpenAI Service.

India has one of the fastest growing AI talent pools in the world, and an increasing number of companies and startups in the country are also adopting GenAI to launch new services and features.

As a result, a number of big tech firms are focussing on the AI talent in India. Google, besides rolling out its AI tools in India, last month said it has shortlisted 20 AI-first startups in the seed to Series A stage for the eighth batch of its startup accelerator in India.

Last year, Meta also partnered with government-backed India AI to foster collaboration in the field of artificial intelligence (AI) and other emerging technologies. 

As per Inc42 data, India is home to more than 70 GenAI startups that raised capital in excess of $440 Mn between 2019 and Q3 2023. The Indian GenAI market is expected to grow to a market size of $17 Bn by 2030 from $1.1 Bn in 2023.

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