As COVID-19 outbreak has changed the way we work, the National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM) in collaboration with the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MEITY) has launched an on-demand courseware on Artificial Intelligence to boost AI readiness among all individuals in the country.

This would be under the NASSCOM FutureSkills initiative and will allow individuals to upskill themselves over the course of the next few weeks.

NASSCOM FutureSkills has curated learning programs for their partner ecosystem that will be available for free on the NASSCOM website for all users.

The Foundational Artificial Intelligence course from SkillUp Online, is aligned to the industry’s recommended Foundation AI curriculum (retail price Rs 6800) free for everyone till May 15, 2020.

The Foundational Big Data Analytics course from Digital Vidya, aligned to the industry’s recommended Foundation BDA curriculum will also be soon made available free of cost (retail price Rs 5000). Besides deep skilling, the website will also have microlearning content on AI as quick knowledge bytes.

Ajay Prakash Sawhney, Secretary, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, Government of India, said, “COVID -19 has thrown unprecedented challenges for the world and industries alike. While we continue to fight these challenges as a nation, it’s important to use this opportunity to upgrade our skills, in order to remain industry relevant and future ready. This campaign will urge IT professionals, students and everybody else interested in technology to enhance their understanding of emerging tech. We are starting with artificial intelligence, as this is one skill that every professional will need. We hope to see many users signing up to avail these courses. All the best for learning and be safe!”

said, “The novel coronavirus has thrown up exceptional challenges across the world and industries alike. While we continue to fight these challenges as a nation, amidst lockdown and remote working scenarios, it is extremely important that we continue harnessing our skill sets on emerging technologies to become future ready.  Through NASSCOM and MeitY’s `Unlock your skills during  the lockdown’ campaign, we would encourage all stakeholders to use this opportunity of working from home to upskill themselves in the skills of the future. We are confident that together we will be able to overcome this phase and emerge stronger post the crisis” , said Debjani Ghosh, President, NASSCOM.

The initiative will allow subscribers to learn, get familiarized with AI enabled technologies and practice AI tools in order to get a deeper understanding on the technology. It will be enabled through microlearning contents, which will be free of cost to the users.