BackIAMAI, Google, Paytm join hands to create app incubation centres
IAMAI, Google and Paytm targets to train 500,000 engineering students in five years to build Android and iOS apps
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New Delhi: Industry body Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI), in association with Google India and payment services provider Paytm, targets to train 500,000 engineering students in five years to build Android and iOS apps and create five app incubation centres across the country under its programme Mobile10X launched on Wednesday.
Google and Paytm, which are funding the programme, did not disclose the financial details.
India has close to 50,000 app developers with an estimated revenue of Rs1,000 crore. The target is to grow it to Rs10,000 crore in the next five years.
With the app developer community growing at an exponential pace, Mobile10X aims to augur the developer base, quality and market by 10 times by 2019.
“We will look at 10 times quality, 10 times revenue and 10 times the number of developers," Rajan Anandan, vice president and managing director, Google, South East Asia and India, said at an event in Delhi.
“Foundation is very important. India doesn’t have dearth of engineering students. We are trying to improve the underlying quality. We need to expand the talent pool," he added citing that the training programme will be conducted by design experts from Google.
The incubation would happen at startup hubs which will be set up across five different states in the country.
It already has a nod from the Karnataka government for land to set up mobile startup hubs. The other states it is in talks with are Haryana, Maharashtra, Telangana and Rajasthan. The target is to set up five startup hubs in five years. The first hub is slated for launch in Bengaluru in October. It will have design and testing labs, among others.
The app development programme will be conducted in colleges as well as startup hubs.
“India is on the cusp of an apps revolution. With over 213 million mobile internet users and nearly 130 million local language consumers on the internet, the growth trajectory for apps development is bound to be exponential. People are moving towards apps and IAMAI is of the view that the apps economy is India will drive the next level of internet growth, “ said Subho Ray, president IAMAI.
Apart from training and incubation, Mobile 10X will run three more offline as well as online programmes for entrepreneurs interested in mobile app development.
It would include building up an online mentoring platform where entrepreneurs can connect with mentors who can guide them on their product.
The rest of the two programmes will largely be around Investors and Industry Connect.
As the name suggests, while Investors Connect will allow entrepreneurs to network with investors, Industry Connect would ensure that app developers are able to connect with the right companies which can lead to suitable roles in those companies.
The mentors helping these entrepreneurs would include top industry experts, said Nishant Rao, country manager, LinkedIN India and chairman, IAMAI.
“The aim is to help developers understand what to build and ensure that they find suitable roles within these companies, he added.
Rao said that over 63% of graduates and over 46% of engineering graduates in the country are unemployed.
Contrary to the current practice in the industry where the incubators and accelerators either charge a programme fee or an equity stake in the startups early on, Mobile 10X will be free for entrepreneurs.
The country currently has over 300 million internet users and the number is expected to grow to 580 million by 2018, according to IAMAI.
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