‘With 4M app developers, India will surpass US by 2018,’ says Google’s Rajan Anandan

Rajan Anandan, an investor and MD of Google South East Asia and India, said that with four million app developers India will surpass US by 2018. At present, with three million software developers worldwide India holds second position. However, he added, only two per cent of apps built in India feature in the top 1000 apps globally.

So to raise the number to 10 per cent in the next three years, Google and Tata Trusts have announced the launch of Android Nanodegrees program in India in partnership with Udacity. It is a nine-month program worth Rs. 9,800 per month. Udacity will refund 50 percent of the tuition upon completion. Google will also host a career summit for 30 of the top graduates from the Android Nanodegree program in Bengaluru by end of this year.

Technology executive and Product Chief at Google Sundar Pichai on Google I/O 2015 said that Google has invested over $4 million in developing this curriculum.

Ganesh Neelam, Development Manager, Tata Trusts, said, “Tata Trusts in association with Google will provide 500 scholarships to deserving aspirants in the field of Android development in India. Through this initiative, Tata Trusts helps build the digital ecosystem and stands by its core objective of creating a sustainable difference for empowering communities across the nation.”

“Our mission at Udacity is to democratize education for everyone to help people get the jobs they want and they dream of,” said Sebastian Thrun, Founder and CEO of Udacity.

The Android Nanodegree is designed to help developers learn new skills and will cover the entire lifecycle of Android development such as Google Play, services, and material design etc. As a part of the program, Google and Tata Trusts will offer 1000 scholarships for the Android Nanodegree to deserving students across the country.

A report by Internet Mobile Association of India revealed that India today has 350 million Internet users and has become the second largest Internet market globally, whereas in 2011, the number was 100 million.

According Rajan, in India, 65 per cent of total users in 2015 have accessed Internet through mobile devices, whereas in China, only 15 per cent of users access Internet through mobile devices. Given the current growth rate of Internet users in India, by 2017, the number will touch 500 billion, of which 400 million will access Internet through smartphones.

Speaking on the amount of venture capital invested in Indian startups in 2015, Rajan says, “In last quarter 2015, over $2 billion of venture capital has been invested into Indian startups, and 70 per cent of these have gone to mobile first tech businesses. Whereas in Q2 2014, only $700 million have been invested in Indian startups.”