Microsoft, Anna varsity announce partnership

Anna University and Microsoft have announced a partnership under which students and faculty of 235 engineering colleges of the university would have access to all the Microsoft developer tools.

The software would be available for a nominal charge.The financial and legal modalities of the partnership are being worked out and the pact is expected to be signed within a month.

The Microsoft developer tools can be used by the students both at their institutions as well as hostels and homes on their personal computers for academic and research purposes, a company release said. So far Microsoft has entered into agreements with individual departments of colleges across India.

As part of the agreement, Microsoft would assist in setting up Microsoft technologies in labs at select institutions and conduct faculty development programmes on its curriculum related technologies.

The partnership is also an extension of the already existing relationship between Microsoft and Anna University as the former has already set up a .NET Centre of Excellence on the latter's Guindy campus.

The agreement will have a significant impact on the employability of its students in the corporate world by exposing them to the cutting edge technologies and empowering them with skill sets that are relevant, added the release.