Microsoft Corporation India Private Limited on Wednesday announced the signing of a comprehensive memorandum of understanding with the Government of Maharashtra.
The MoU underlines a joint commitment by Microsoft and the state government for accelerating IT literacy in the state, enabling delivery of effective e-governance services and ushering in local language computing at the grass root.
The MoU was signed in the presence of Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh by Ravi Venkatesan, chairman, Microsoft Corporation India. Also present at the signing ceremony was Will Pool, vice president (Windows Client Group), Microsoft Corp.
Commenting on the partnership, Deshmukh said, "Our partnership with Microsoft compliments our government's unique focus and vision for creating a unique edge for the state of Maharashtra on the IT front. We believe that through technology, we can create a skilled resource base in our state comprising of the next generation of professionals both at the grass root level as well as in terms of high-end IT talent."
Elaborating on Microsoft's partnership with the Government of Maharashtra, Venkatesan, said, "India is synonymous with IT success today and is mirroring the new face of IT led development in emerging economies. As a long-term partner for India, at Microsoft we strive to be a key contributor to this success and at the same time help create a digitally-inclusive society where technology reaches out to the over one billion strong population especially the marginalised sections at the grass root level to realise their full potential. We seek to work closely with Indian governments for realisation of this vision."
A key deliverable of the MoU for collaboration in education entails implementation of Microsoft's Partners-in-Learning Program in the state at the school level and Microsoft's University Relations Program for academia and student engagement at the university level.
Microsoft is setting up a third IT academy in the state in addition to 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 5-year period.
For ushering in local language computing under the aegis of Project Bhasha, Microsoft will roll-out Marathi language interfaces for Microsoft Windows and Microsoft Office, working in close collaboration with the state government. The availability of a Marathi interface will enable IT access for the large Marathi speaking population of Maharashtra.