Microsoft AI Training for 2 Million Indian People
Unemployment is one of the biggest obstacles to the growth of a nation. This issue is always part of the manifestation of several political parties. This issue is always a concern in India as well. To tackle the situation, the central government is working hard on it; even several schemes have been introduced, like the Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana (PMMY), the Prime Minister Rojgar Yojana, the Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana, etc. In the wake of skilling initiatives in India, the world’s largest IT company is planning to give training to more than 2 million Indians with artificial intelligence skills. This statement was made by Satya Nadella, chairman and chief executive, on Wednesday.
On February 7, Nadella stated that Microsoft is aiming to provide training to 2+ million people in India with AI skills. This initiative will generate more employment in India. The announcement was made during an event of Microsoft CEO Connection in Mumbai. Noteworthy: Nadella is on his three-day annual visit to Bharat. He states that “we are dedicated to training more than 2 million people in India with AI skills—that is, really taking the workforce and making sure that they have the right skills to be able to be part of this technology or domain. This opportunity is not only restricted to providing skills but will also be helpful to generate more jobs.”
The initiative has been taking place under ADVANTA(1)GE INDIA. It is primarily a part of Microsoft’s ‘Skills for Jobs’ program, which is created to empower the Indian workforce with future-ready skills. It is worth noting that the initiative is part of the broader commitment of Microsoft to accelerate the artificial intelligence transformation in India. Speaking about Nadella’s speech, he states that the work has been done under an AI startup called Karya. This AI startup enlists and pays 30.000 plus Indians who live in rural areas to build quality datasets with the help of videos, speech, images, and text for the training purpose of large language models in 12 native languages of India.
In his speech, the Microsoft chief included the work of a GenAI chatbot named Jugalbandhi. This chatbot has been created for government assistance. He even discussed the collaboration of Bhashini language translation with Jugalbandhi. Jugalbandhi is helpful to retrieve information on government programs and provide the information to its users in their native language. This GenAI chatbot is quite helpful for rural people who only understand their local language. In his speech, he also includes the data received from the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology. He stated that of the $5 trillion GDP that the nation hopes to achieve by 2025, almost $500 billion would be driven by AI, citing data from the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology.
Apart from that, as per the recent Work Trend Index of Microsoft, 90 percent of leaders in India say people need to learn new skills if they want to be part of the growth of artificial intelligence. In addition to this, the workers in India state that they do not have the right AI capabilities to finish their current work. President of Microsoft India and South Asia, Puneet Chandok, also states that “the ADVANTA (I)GE India initiative is a significant step towards democratizing access to AI skills across the nation and reflects the deep commitment of Microsoft to enabling inclusive growth with technology.”