Gates is out hunting talent; charmed by Jayalalitha
By Our Corporate Bureau | 09 Dec 2005
Registration for the contest will start in January 2006 and students will be tested for technical and analytical skills and later be interviewed by Microsoft technical teams.
Addressing over 5,000 software developers in Bangalore, Gates said the search, dubbed Code 4 Bill, recognised India's role in nurturing technical talent. "This is something we've never done before anywhere," he said.
In India for the Microsoft global leaders forum, he announced a massive $1.7-billion investment on Wednesday — 10 per cent of India's software exports in FY 2005 — to drive momentum in four broad areas over the next four years:
- Create local language computing solutions and facilitate affordable access to technology in rural areas programs to accelerate IT literacy
- Strengthen the local knowledge economy and provide technology-based, customised and relevant solutions to customers across a cross section of industries.
- Expand Microsoft's marketing infrastructure
- Expand India into a major hub for Microsoft research, product and applications development, services and technical support for both global and domestic industry.
One of Gates' priorities is to develop technologies for low-cost computing since computer prices in India have inhibited mass usage. Through Microsoft's three emerging application platforms Gates wants Microsoft to reach out to more than 100,000 developers through e-learning courses for the new products. "Personal computers can come down in price. The world is increasingly becoming digital," he said.
Later in the day he was in Chennai where he met, Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalitha, who invited him to invest in a high performance computing centre and an engineering product design and delivery centre in. She assured him that the government would allot the required land and render whatever support was needed for setting up the company's facilities in Chennai.
Jayalalitha told Gates that her government was committed to leveraging information and communication technology to leapfrog to the top in all spheres and bridging the digital divide and requested that Tamil Nadu be included in Microsoft's programme to equip schools with computers as her government had launched an ambitious programme of taking computers to village panchayats to bridge the digital divide and Gates promised her Microsoft's support. Microsoft is a partner in Tamil Nadu's Project Siksha.