MongoDB, Inc., a New York-based platform that aims to empower innovators to create, transform, and disrupt industries by unleashing the power of software and data, has recently announced the expansion of MongoDB for Academia in India, including a new partnership with All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), Ministry of Education, Government of India. The AICTE partnership will be supported by SmartBridge’s SmartInternz learning platform to give more than 150,000 Indian students access to virtual internships and to gain the skills required to use MongoDB Atlas—the leading multi-cloud developer data platform.
As part of the programme’s expansion, MongoDB also announced a new partnership with GeeksforGeeks, a platform for computer science resources in India. The collaboration will make the MongoDB Developer Learning Path available to all 25 million registered users of GeeksforGeeks.
Launched in September 2023, the MongoDB for Academia in India program provides student training, curriculum resources for educators, credits to use MongoDB technology at no cost, and certifications to help individuals start careers in the technology industry. The skills and training provided through the programme are particularly important, as many Indian organizations struggle to find developers who can build modern applications and take advantage of emerging technologies like generative AI.
Speaking about the development, Dr Buddha Chandrasekhar, CEO of Anuvadini AI, Ministry of Education and Chief Coordinating Officer, AICTE, Ministry of Education, Government of India, said:
In India, we have a massive opportunity with the current wave of AI and modern technologies that will transform our lives and economy in the coming years. But our developers must have the right skills to take advantage of that opportunity. We’re excited to partner with MongoDB to help make that possible.
According to a National Association of Software and Service Companies report, India’s technology sector will demand more than one million engineers with advanced skills in artificial intelligence and other capabilities over the next three years. Overall, the industry body expects a need for around six million digital roles by 2028—and the available talent pool is forecast to be 4.7 million workers. This gap underscores the need for increased collaboration between industry and academia to upskill students and educators in India to meet the demands of the country’s large and growing economy.
To address this challenge, MongoDB for Academia is partnering with the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), the Indian government’s authority for the management of technical education, and the EdTeh platform SmartBridge to launch a virtual internship programme through the SmartInternz platform. Aligned with the government’s Skill India Initiative, the programme aims to provide full-stack development skills to over 150,000 students. Each internship will include 60 hours of experiential learning, hands-on bootcamps, courses, project work, and simulated corporate environments where students can apply their learned skills, collaborate with peers, and receive mentorship.
Sachin Chawla, Area Vice President, India at MongoDB, added:
India loves developers, and MongoDB does too. I’m so proud of the work our MongoDB for Academia team is doing to empower Indian developers and support the next generation of tech talent in this country.
In the past year, the MongoDB for Academia programme has made significant strides toward upskilling 500,000 students. To date, more than 200 partnerships with educational institutions and collaborations with other government and private organizations have been established. Hundreds of educators have been onboarded to the MongoDB for Academia programme, more than 100,000 students have received skills training, and over 450,000 hours of learning have been completed.
MongoDB for Academia is also expanding to partner with GeeksforGeeks, which will see the organizations collaborate on a number of new projects. These include syndicating key full-stack development courses to learners inline and offline GeeksforGeeks centres across India. The MongoDB Developer Learning path will also become available to all GeeksforGeeks users and is expected to reach more than 100,000 aspiring developers.
