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10,000 Indian Students Unleash their Creativity on Windows at AppFest

Over 10,000 students across India joined forces today to unleash their creativity at the Microsoft Student AppFest, a unique coding event enabling students from colleges of all sizes and stature to develop their 'dream app' ideas alongside professional developers using the latest Microsoft technologies.

Landing in 54 key hubs in 45 key cities across 18 states of India, the reverberations of the day-long coding fest were felt across the country with each state hosting a bustling hands-on workshop run by a total of 150 Microsoft Student Partners on-call to give students a first-hand app development experience.

An average of 250 estimate students from each college contributed to the total number of 10,000 participating students. The tremendous response amounts to over 60,000 collective hours of coding. An estimated total number of 3,000 full apps were imagined and created during the one-day code-a-thon.

The goal of the event was to ignite the imagination of students from colleges representing the full spectra of Indian academia by offering the chance to design the perfect app with guidance from professional developers. Young tech-enthusiasts were given the freedom of casting their app-vision on the latest Windows 8 and Windows Phone platforms; building, designing and testing bespoke apps geared at phones and tablets while receiving guidance and support from Microsoft mentors, trainers and Student Partners to realize their creation.

Inaugurating the Appfest at Saroj Sadan University of Mumbai, Kalina was Jean-Philippe Courtois, President, Microsoft International. Also, talking about the AppFest was Dr. S. S. Mantha, Chairman, AICTE, who said "Opportunities like these are the game changers in today's world. These are the skills that the future generations need to understand and learn in a globally collaborative world"

Present at the inauguration venue was Dr. Rajan Welukar Vice-Chancellor, University of Mumbai who spoke about the connect between both the IT and the education industries, saying "University of Mumbai is keen in creating competent skills in students as per the need of Government, Industry and other Social Sectors. Conducting workshops on application development for the students by the leading industries thus facilitates them to achieve the expertise required. We are bringing up new specialized courses such as IT infrastructure management in collaboration with industry to bridge the gap between academia and industry. Appfest by Microsoft being conducted across fifty centers in India and being inaugurated here in University of Mumbai will stand as a landmark for achieving the above objectives"

The diversity and breadth of colleges that participated in Microsoft Student AppFest made the event a truly representative occasion. Participation was inclusive of key metros from colleges such as IIT Mumbai, Ahmedabad but also saw representation from a plethora of vibrant academic and engineering colleges from Tier II and Tier III cities.

Speaking as one of the many colleges from across India participating in the event, Dr. Thakare, HOD Amravati University, Amravati added "Microsoft has engaged with us on initiatives like Faculty Summer Schools and Curriculum Development & Adoption, and with this AppFest they are preparing the technical talent for the next level of technology and trends in application development which we believe is the next wave of technology adoption." According to recent research, every year more than 3 million graduates and post-graduates are added to the Indian human-resource and out of these, only 25% of IT graduates are considered employable by fast growing IT & ITES industry.

About Microsoft India
Founded in 1975, Microsoft (NASDAQ "MSFT") is the worldwide leader in software for personal and business computing. The company offers a wide range of products and services designed to empower people through great software - any time, any place and on any device. Microsoft Corporation (India) Private Ltd is a subsidiary of Microsoft Corporation, USA. It has had a presence in India since 1990 and currently has offices in nine cities - Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Kochi, Kolkata, Mumbai, New Delhi and Pune.



CONTACT DETAILS
Sabah Hamid, Microsoft, +91 9811799075, sabah@microsoft.com
Sharib Hussain, IPAN Hill+Knowlton Strategies, +91 9711118974, sharib.hussain@hkstrategies.com