Google on Monday launched a program to offer Android Nanodegrees in India in partnership with online education company Udacity, with a vision to transform the country into a hub of high-quality mobile developers for global and local apps.
The Android Nanodegree is an education credential that is designed to help developers learn new skills and advance their careers in a few months from anywhere on any device at their own pace, the company officials said.
As part of the program, Google and Tata Trusts will offer 1,000 scholarships for the Android Nanodegree to deserving students across the country. “Thanks to the very large IT services industry, we have over 3 million software professionals in India already, so that is a pretty large developer base. The current estimate is that by 2018, India will overtake the US in terms of number of developers and we will have over four million developers in India by then,” Google VP and MD (South East Asia&India) Rajan Anandan told reporters.
“But not so great news is that if you look at the top 1,000 apps on Android globally, only two per cent of those apps come from Indian app developers. If you look at the top 100 apps on the Google play store globally (is) zero- we don't have a single app from India,” he said.