In line with the government’s Digital India vision, Microsoft India launched the Digital Governance Tech Tour, a National program to deliver critical AI and intelligent cloud computing skills to the Government officials in charge of IT across the country. The initiative comprises a series of physical and virtual workshops and aims to train 5,000 personnel over a period of 12 months. This announcement reaffirms Microsoft’s commitment to empower government organizations to leverage AI and secure cloud technology for efficient, transparent and productive governance.

The program was inaugurated at the Digital Governance Tech Summit 2019 in New Delhi by Amitabh Kant, CEO NITI Aayog and Ajay Prakash Sawhney, Secretary MeITY, in the presence of Dr. Neeta Verma, Director General, National Informatics Centre (NIC); Sureshkumar Nair, Additional CEO, Government eMarketplace (GEM); Dr. Omkar Rai, Director General, Software Technology Parks of India (STPI), Anant Maheshwari, President, Microsoft India and other dignitaries. The summit in New Delhi was supported by NIC, GeM and STPI.

The launch summit featured discussions on the immense possibilities that skilling will open up in government services. Speakers also deliberated on the need for a secure information infrastructure as well as how government agencies can build trust in their intelligent technology powered projects. The discussions were followed by first training session of the program with close to 500 participants from different central and state government departments.

AI and intelligent technologies are becoming all-pervasive today, driving change across businesses, communities and governments. As India advances towards fulfilling its vision of becoming a $5 trillion economy, applying AI and data analytics using secure and compliant cloud-based tools can provide actionable, predictive and effective citizen focused services, while empowering more secure inter-departmental and cross-agency collaboration. Through this program, Microsoft will help upskill government officials, equipping them with the digital skills and experience needed today and - in the future - to successfully deploy cloud-based solutions.

Amitabh Kant, CEO - NITI Aayog, said, “For our country, the power of AI, cloud services, and data analytics needs to be brought to bear in core sectors for inclusive economic growth. As we move beyond pilots and understand how to scale AI implementation and cloud adoption across states and sectors, it is vital to equip the ecosystem with the right knowhow and skills. Collaboration with academia and the industry, and initiatives such as this will help build the foundation towards an AI enabled future.”

According to Anant Maheshwari, President, Microsoft India, “AI and the cloud can enable path-breaking innovation and drive the next phase of India's growth. Continuous focus on learning and improving skillsets for all are a must to make this a reality. Microsoft's first-of-its-kind Digital Governance Tech Tour for government officials reiterates our commitment to be a trusted partner to the government by enabling and empowering officials to do more with technology in service of the citizens.”

About the Digital Governance Tech Tour

The Digital Governance Tech Tour will be open to technocrats and IT professionals across the entire Government ecosystem, including employees of Public Sector Undertakings; government partners as well as solutions/systems integrators.

It is designed keeping in mind all skill levels required at every stage of Government’s cloud adoption journey - from integrating on-premise core infrastructure with cloud platforms to operationalizing cloud analytics solutions. Participants will come away with a range of skills including being able to move, transform and analyze data, design and deployment skills for end-to-end solutions, and monitoring and troubleshooting in the cloud.

It will offer a comprehensive free of cost 10-module program under two different tracks. The first track, meant for Technical Directors, Technical Architects and Project Managers will cover

* Modern Project management for governance

* An overview of DevOps: a foundation for digital transformation

* Data, Analytics & Insights

* Ethical governance through AI

* Increased productivity with modern collaboration tools

* Top security considerations for moving to cloud

The second track, for Developers, IT Architect and Application Architects, will comprise a deep dive into the fundamentals of Azure cloud. Additionally, developers will also have the opportunity to take an exam and earn the AZ-900 Certification on the spot at no cost.