Microsoft is looking to accelerate digital transformation in the North Eastern regions of India, leveraging the power of artificial intelligence (AI) and cloud technologies.
As a part of its mission, Microsoft India will increase investments in the eight North Eastern states, starting with Sikkim. The focus of investment will be on education sector. The company has already signed an MoU with Sikkim Government, to build new age tech capacity in government schools in the state.
Microsoft is going to update the state board curriculum with content related to information technology (IT) for grades 6 to 10. To provide better teaching, the company will offer training to 100 master trainers at the State Council for Research and training (SCERT).
For reforming the entire schools, the tech giant is going to adopt two government-nominated schools. Teachers and students of these schools will get training on creative coding and gaming. These trainings will be provided through workshops at schools and online webinars.
“E-governance is the best way to get the benefits of technology to all the residents of North East India. We believe the next step of growth will be to leverage the power of the cloud, artificial intelligence, IoT and data; and are very keen to partner with the North East on this journey,” said Mr. Manish Prakash, General Manager – Public Sector, Microsoft India.
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To build teacher capacity and develop educators professionally, Microsoft will offer its Innovative Educator Program to all educators of primary, secondary, vocational, and tertiary education, the company said. Apart from these, free resources, tools and software will also be available for educators through Microsoft Educator Network. This will help them learn from global discussion groups and mentoring sessions.
Lastly, the company said that it will also provide training to a batch of 20 District Education Officers (DEO) and Principles of government schools. These entities will go ahead to train other schools within their district.
Microsoft is dedicated to transform Indian education sector and empower students with modern technologies. Recently, the tech giant launched a new program called Intelligent Cloud Hub, which is aimed to skill students in AI and cloud technologies. As a part of this program, core AI infrastructure and IoT hubs will be established for specific education and research firms in the country.
“We are committed to harnessing the power of the technology to transform e-governance and core sectors in Sikkim and we are happy to partner with Microsoft,” said Hon’ble HRDD Minister R.B. Subba.
