Transforming Education in India - Orlando Ayala

I am pleased to be joining you again from the road—this week, I am in India to support our ongoing efforts to extend the power of technology to the world’s underserved populations.  India’s uneven economic and social balance, with over 98% of the population living at the middle and base of the economic pyramid, represents an urgent and substantial call to action in our work towards realizing this goal. 

As a nation, India has made great strides competitively and economically in recent years.   Its success has placed it in an excellent position to lessen the economic imbalance and bring better livelihoods and increased social and economic opportunities to those at the base of the pyramid.  I believe that this is a critical time for India—a time when the right choices, the right level of commitment, and the right partnerships can make a lasting difference and help transform the nation, bringing new possibilities to people that desperately need it today. 

Through Microsoft Unlimited Potential, we are continuing our work in India to enable sustained social and economic growth through relevant programs and products that are accessible to everyone. Affordability is also a critical component but it is important to understand this goes far beyond low-cost hardware. Affordable solutions must account for individual needs and means, and use creative ways to deliver technology, through different devices, access models and financing options.

One of the most fundamental areas in which technology can be applied to enable this growth is within education—the core element for sustained social and economic inclusion. India faces a serious challenge in providing quality education, a critical factor in ensuring that children begin with a fair level of opportunity.  If applied correctly, technology holds great potential to meet this challenge. 

We are deeply committed to transforming access to quality education in India, and have already made great progress.  Project Shiksha, made possible through our Partners in Learning program, aims to accelerate IT literacy for over 200,000 teachers and 10 million students across schools in India over the next 5 years.  To date, we have already trained 100,000 teachers and impacted 5 million students across the country. 

And today, at a press conference in Delhi, Ravi Venkatesan, chairman of Microsoft India, and I announced that Microsoft will be scaling up existing programs and enabling greater access in India through a ‘connected learning framework’ of software and services called IQ. As part of this effort, we are kicking off a pilot program with AMD in Bangalore and Pune for the IQ PC, a low cost computer that includes Windows, Office / Works, Encarta, and Student 2007 along with specialized education solutions from a host of key partners. We also introduced the MSN IQ Education Channel, an online repository of educational content, online tutoring, competitive exam coaching and specialized editorial content from leading authorities. The IQ framework is exciting because it combines online and offline solutions with content tied directly to each stage of a student’s learning process and growth.

And finally, a point I stressed a couple weeks ago in Burkina Faso: we cannot do this alone. Microsoft is catalyzing a network of industry, government and development leaders to form and strengthen partnerships at the local, regional and global level that create the scale necessary to achieve the goals of Unlimited Potential.

The IQ offerings, for example, are supported and extended by numerous partners with extensive experience and understanding of both education and the India market. In addition to AMD, we’re working closely with Brilliant Tutorials, Junior Achievement, Pacsoft, Karadi Tales, Gurujiworld, Edurite and TutorVista. You will hear quite a bit more about these and other partnerships Microsoft is forging here in India to deliver truly innovative solutions.  

Ultimately, while any nation can work to enable quality education for all ages, for this to be meaningful to those unable to provide for their most basic needs, these efforts must translate to a single critical goal: creating economic opportunity.  By doing so, we can help to ensure that the rich human potential of every person—throughout India and the world—is able to be realized. 

-Orlando Ayala, Senior Vice President, Emerging Segments Market Development Group, Microsoft