Satya Nadella: India Set to Overtake US as Largest GitHub Developer Community by 2027
- ByStartupStory | February 9, 2024
India is set to become the fastest-growing market for Microsoft’s GitHub, with an expected surge to become the largest developer community on the platform by 2027, surpassing the US. Currently, India boasts 13.2 million developers on GitHub, while the US stands at around 20 million. Additionally, India ranks second in the number of generative artificial intelligence (genAI) projects on GitHub, trailing only behind the US.
Satya Nadella, Chairman and CEO of Microsoft, made these revelations during the Microsoft AI Tour in Bengaluru on Thursday. As part of his three-day visit to India, Nadella is showcasing AI-based Microsoft products and advocating for their broader adoption. Nadella, who hails from Hyderabad, marked his 10-year tenure at Microsoft, credited with revamping the company with his “mobile and cloud first” strategy.
Addressing a gathering of over 1,000 software developers, Nadella emphasized the significant contributions of Indian developers in creating cutting-edge products and solutions that address challenges nationally and drive global AI innovation. He praised India’s developers as “unstoppable,” highlighting their “unbelievable” momentum. Nadella also announced the expansion of the ‘Code without Barriers’ initiative to India this month. Launched in 2021 across nine Asia-Pacific countries, the program aims to reduce the gender gap in the region’s rapidly growing cloud, AI, and digital technology sectors. It offers support, training, and networking opportunities for female developers, coders, and other technical roles, with plans to support 75,000 female developers in India this year.
Nadella also unveiled a partnership with Sarvam AI to develop voice-based generative AI applications, making the Indian startup’s Indic voice large language model (LLM) available on Microsoft’s Azure cloud computing platform. Sarvam AI, cofounded by Vivek Raghavan, a former technology advisor with the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), focuses on genAI models for Indic languages and context, leveraging Microsoft’s cloud services, including Azure OpenAI Service.
Other partnerships announced include collaborations with Persistent Systems and Open Healthcare Network to innovate India’s healthcare systems, and with Shiksha Copilot, developed by the Sikshana Foundation and Microsoft Research India, to enhance learning outcomes and empower teachers using Azure OpenAI models. Shiksha Copilot is currently deployed in approximately 30 rural and urban schools in Bengaluru.
In January, Microsoft enabled 100,000 developers to advance their AI careers through its AI Odyssey initiative, with plans to expand the program to other Asia-Pacific countries, including Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Indonesia, South Korea, China, Vietnam, and Thailand. The program will also welcome Indian developers who could not participate in the AI Odyssey challenge in January. Phase-2 of AI Odyssey will run from February 8 to June 25, aiming to reach 150,000 developers across Asia.
During his visit to Mumbai on Wednesday, Nadella announced an initiative to provide AI skilling opportunities to 2 million Indians by 2025.
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