Nadella unveils ‘Project Sangam’, ‘Made for India’ Skype Lite app

MUMBAI:In a big push for Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Skill India initiative, Microsoft's Indian-born CEO Satya Nadella on Wednesday launched "Project Sangam" to help the government not only train but also help people get jobs via professional networking website LinkedIn that was acquired by the company last year.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella addresses IT professionals and business leaders at a summit in Mumbai on Wednesday. AFP

Mumbai, February 22

In a big push for Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Skill India initiative, Microsoft's Indian-born CEO Satya Nadella on Wednesday launched "Project Sangam" to help the government not only train but also help people get jobs via professional networking website LinkedIn that was acquired by the company last year.

Aimed at employing and empowering low-skilled workers, "Project Sangam" will commence from Andhra Pradesh.

"The company will allow people to enrol through Aadhaar cards and later utilise LinkedIn to manage their profiles," said Nadella in the presence of Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu and Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis at the jam-packed "Future Decoded" event here.

"Project Sangam" will be an open ecosystem where trainers can pour their content into the project and people can take the training right from "Sangam" and apply for jobs.

As soon as the training is completed, Microsoft will update their profiles for employers to shortlist and hire the skilled workers. The candidates will also receive job options according to their skills.

"It is the first project on Cloud that will bring Microsoft and LinkedIn together to help unemployed masses in India," Nadella added.

Praising the Microsoft initiative, Naidu said with infusing right ideas and technology, Andhra Pradesh can be the next Silicon Valley.

Throwing a direct competition to social media apps like Google's messaging app Allo and video calling app Duo, WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger, Nadella also announced "Skype Lite", an exclusive "Made for India" app to provide seamless experience in messaging, audio and video calling even at lower bandwidths.

"Packed in a 13MB file (from its original 36 MB size), the new app is available only for Android devices and is especially designed to save data," Nadella told the gathering.

The lightweight "Skype Lite" app supports several Indian languages including Gujarati, Bengali, Hindi, Marathi, Tamil, Telugu and Urdu. IANS