Redmond has just announced that will organize a new AppFest coding marathon, this time in India, on February 26. Microsoft hopes to get together at least 10,000 students across the country.
The news was reported by InformationWeek, and apparently the event will take place in over 50 hub centers across India. Some of the major ones include locations like the Shivajirao S. Jondhale College of Engineering and VES Institute of Technology.
Educational institutes are currently holding training sessions for students to help them refine their coding skills. Students are set to get together on the day of the AppFest and gear up to code applications for a whole day at the selection locations.
Pratima Amonkar, the director of Strategic Audience Marketing noted:
“Given the right skills and training, there is lot young technology students can achieve today. This is exactly what we are trying to do: bring together the opportunity and those who can utilize it.
Obviously students recognize the opportunity, going by the enthusiastic response we have received across India so far.”
And just like in previous such events, Redmond will offer students free software — including Visual Studio Express for Windows 8 —as well as Windows Store registration codes.
This event could not have come at a better time. Recent statistics show that new app submissions to the Windows Store have slowed down a tad. Microsoft’s premier apps repository is (as of this writing) chugging along towards the 50,000 unique apps milestone.
