Internet giant Google is planning to train up to 2m software developers in India on its Android platform, rivalling Apple, which has also been deploying considerable resources to the region to support its iOS ecosystem.
Google’s Android Skilling Programme will be introduced for free across several universities and training schools through a specially designed syllabus.
The syllabus will also be available through the Indian government’s National Skills Development Corporation, as well as training partners like Edureka, Koenig, Manipal Global, Simplilearn, Udacity and UpGrad, which will operate as authorised android training partners in India.
India will have 4m software developers by 2018, which will be the largest population of developers in the world.
However, today, less than 25pc of these developers are trained to develop and build for the mobile platform.
This is at a time when the majority of internet users in India access the web from their mobile devices.
Google’s senior programme manager for Google Developer Training, Peter Lubbers, said: “India’s developer ecosystem is well-established globally and we believe that the Android Skilling programme addresses the need to produce world-class, skilled-up developers and scale up the mobile developer ecosystem to help make India a global leader in mobile app development.”
In May, rival Apple announced 4,000 new jobs in Hyderabad, and also established a new iOS apps development centre in Bengalaru to accelerate the Indian tech start-up ecosystem.
India image via Shutterstock
