Microsoft India on Thursday (31 January) joined hands with the Sikkim government to improve the education system in the state, India Today reports.

A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), signed between the Human Resources Department (HRD) of the state and the software giant’s subsidiary in India, aims to boost digital literacy and new-age technology knowledge in students and teachers of government schools.

The HRD Minister of Sikkim, RB Subba, said the collaboration between the two was part of the state’s commitment to make use of technology to revamp its core sectors including e-governance.

Among others, HRD Additional Chief Secretary GP Updhayaya and Microsoft’s Director of Education (Advocacy) Vinnie Jauhari attended the event. Sikkim will be the latest entrant to the list of around 150 government departments and state-owned enterprises across states running on the Microsoft cloud.

IANS quoted Subba as saying that the tie-up would enable the youth to be future- ready. Managing Director (Public Sector), Microsoft India, Manish Prakash, said that e-governance was the best way to provide technological benefits to all North East Indian residents.

"We believe the next step of growth will be to leverage the power of the cloud, artificial intelligence, Internet of Things and data; and are very keen to partner with the North East on this journey," PTI quoted Prakash as saying.

The software company will aid Sikkim in integrating IT courseware into the state curriculum from class VI to class X and produce 100 master trainers at the State Council for Educational Research and Training (SCERT) labs on IT curriculum.

Microsoft will also adopt two schools to implement the plan and build student-teacher capacity in digital skills, enhance digital literacy and digital citizenship.

e-governance.

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