Over 9,000 Nellore Candidates Benefit From FutureSkills Prime

 Nellore: Over 9,000 candidates from Nellore district in Andhra Pradesh have benefited from the FutureSkills Prime programme under the National Policy on Software Products (NPSP), 2019, the Centre informed the Lok Sabha on Wednesday.

Replying to a question raised by MP Vemireddy Prabhakar Reddy, minister of state for electronics and IT Jitin Prasada said the NPSP aims to transform India’s IT sector from a service-led industry into a product-driven digital economy, while promoting innovation, intellectual property creation and software exports.

Under the FutureSkills Prime initiative, more than 27.53 lakh candidates have registered across the country and over 17.2 lakh have been trained in emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence, Internet of Things, big data analytics and AR/VR. In Andhra Pradesh, more than 3.29 lakh candidates have enrolled, including over 9,000 from Nellore district.

The Centre has allocated ₹436.87 crore for the programme.

Prasada said several other initiatives are also being implemented under the NPSP, including GENESIS, BHASHINI, SAMRIDH, TIDE 2.0, Digi-SAPNE and the Next Generation Incubation Scheme (NGIS) to support startups, language technology development and entrepreneurship.

He added that 24 Centres of Entrepreneurship of Software Technology Parks of India (STPI) are currently functional across the country. In Andhra Pradesh, the ‘Kalpataru’ centre on Industry 4.0 is operating in Visakhapatnam.

The government is also organising workshops, hackathons, expert talks and outreach programmes with industry bodies and academic institutions to raise awareness about these initiatives, particularly in Tier-II and Tier-III cities.