According to a survey by the Indian Internet Mobile Association, of the estimated 500 million internet users in 2017, 400 million will browse or surf the net on smart phones, indicating the huge potential for developing hundreds of mobile apps to meet their multiple needs. Now India is home to the second largest programmer population in the world, a Udacity spokeswoman said.

The curriculum will be updated regularly with new releases. “With the launch of this program we want to bridge the gap by providing India’s developer community an easy access to learn and build high quality apps for the world”.

“Only two per cent of apps built in India feature in the top 1,000 apps globally and our goal is to raise this to 10 per cent in next three years”, added Mr. Anandan.

“Through this initiative with Google, we hope to build the digital ecosystem and create a sustainable difference to empower communities across the country”, said Tata Trusts development manager Ganesh Neelam said.

Udacity is setting up shop in India, its first physical offices outside of the United States.

Udacity, founded by former Google executive Sebastian Thrun, also believes that the partnership will help it to grow its student base in India.

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.

For this reason, starting this fall Udacity will offer all seven of its Nanodegrees from Front-End Web Developer to iOS Developer to Android Developer with local support and in local currency – Rs 9,800 per month with 50% back on tuition on graduation.

The enrollment for Udacity Android Nanodegree program is open right now and duration of the course will be around 6 to 9 months.