In the News

‘Microsoft Talent India 2014’ is Microsoft’s latest initiative to help Indian youth succeed in the new digital economy. HRD Minister Smriti Irani and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella jointly addressed a gathering of over 35,000 students during the CEO’s first trip to India after taking over at the helm of the company. Nadella spoke about the importance of doing what you love and looking at every opportunity as a learning experience, while the minister spoke about the importance of IT as a key factor in providing a better tomorrow for India’s youth.

When he was named the chief executive of Microsoft earlier this year, Hyderabad-born Satya Nadella had his work cut out—to ensure that the future of the company would be as secure as its past. One measure of his success is that, since he took over on February 4, the company’s stock has jumped 25.6%. In light of his achievements, he has been awarded the Global Indian Award at the ET Awards 2014. Under Nadella’s leadership, Microsoft has continued to push the Azure platform and maintains the company’s strong culture of innovation.

In the latest addition to the Office productivity suite, Microsoft has launched a free preview of the app Sway. The new app lets users make interactive and easily shareable projects on the Web. It includes a deep integration with Microsoft’s other apps and the powerful Azure servers. Sway’s rich features can help users create anything from resumes to websites with the least amount of effort, on the go.

On a day when Prime Minister Narendra Modi made a pitch for “i-ways for a Digital India” and asked industry captains to seize the initiative, the Hyderabad-born chief executive of Microsoft has offered a partnership to help accelerate the country’s growth. “We are keen to partner with the government and industry at large to help make this vision a reality,” said Satya Nadella in an exclusive interview to ET, ahead of his first visit to India next week.

Businesses and the government can look forward to partnerships with Microsoft, as India aims to accelerate economic growth. In an exclusive interview to ET, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said, “India has been an important part of Microsoft’s plans in the more than two decades that we’ve had a presence here. Every time I visit, I’m energized to see the advancements India has made and truly believe technology is a key enabler for India to thrive and create more opportunities for every individual and business in its economy.” Nadella is set to visit India next week for the first time after taking over as CEO.

In an initiative to bring more women into the Indian IT industry, Microsoft, along with partners, will train and mentor one million women in the next 12 months. Microsoft India launched its ‘Women in Tech’ initiative, which aims to double the number of women IT professionals in India over the next few years. The initiative will include girl school students, young women students in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) colleges, women IT professionals and entrepreneurs.

Microsoft announced that its Office 365 applications will be available for free to students aged 13 years or older. The new scheme is available for US students and will soon be extended to students worldwide. With this, Microsoft will offer the latest versions of Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Outlook, Access and Publisher. It will also offer installation on up to five PCs or Macs, and Office apps on other mobile devices including Windows tablets and iPad, one terabyte of OneDrive cloud storage, and access to Office online.

Within a day after the much-awaited launch of Microsoft’s gaming console Xbox One, Amazon said that it has delivered 200 units, which were booked pre-launch. Microsoft has exclusively tied up with Amazon for its delivery in India and the first console was delivered to a Mumbai customer. Midnight deliveries also happened in Bangalore, Delhi, Hyderabad, Chennai, Pune, Ahmedabad and Nagpur to customers who had pre-booked the console.

Now you can take MSN’s most popular apps – News, Weather, Sports, Money, Health & Fitness, and Food & Drink – with you anywhere, whether you’re on the Web, Windows, Windows Phone, iPhone, iPad, Android Phone and Tablet, or your Amazon Kindle Fire and Amazon Fire Phone. The apps, available for download on the Apple App Store, Google Play Store, Windows and Windows Phone Stores, and the Amazon App Store, let users customize and organize information according to their interests.

Microsoft is all set to take the ‘Indian’ route, offering Bollywood movies and music on its latest Xbox One console. The company is also planning EMI schemes to aggressively market the gaming console, which will be launched in India this week exclusively via Amazon.in. Chakrapani Gollapali, Country General Manager for Consumer Channels Group at Microsoft India said, “The company will tie up with local content aggregators to provide Bollywood movies and music.”