Google To Train 2 Million Indian Android Developers (thestack.com)

An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Stack: Google has announced its new "Android Fundamentals" training program, which aims to train and certify up to two million Android developers in India. The course, soon to be available online and at schools country-wide, is focused on training, testing, and certifying Android developers to prepare students for careers using Android technology. Google is currently working to update the skills of its existing trainers to prepare them to teach the Fundamentals course, as well as updating course materials to provide students a solid foundation in Android development. The new program works with Prime Minister Narendra Modi's 'Skill India' initiative, launched in 2015 with the intent of training 400 million Indian citizens with new vocational skills by 2022. Caesar Sengupta, VP Product Management for Google, said that while India is forecasted to have the largest developer population in the world by 2018, with almost four million developers, only a quarter of them are currently building for mobile.

Comments

Another reason

[colinrichardday]

Another reason for Americans to not study programming.

Re:Another reason

[Anonymous Coward]

why isn't google investing in two million *americans* ?

indians works for pennies on the dollar, and won't need to be h1-b'd either.

Re: Another reason

[ArmoredDragon]

Almost every doctor or nurse I've spoken to says that if they had to do it all over again, they'd go into something else.

Re:Another reason

[jmd]

How about *american indians*

Re: Another reason

[superwiz]

That's precisely why they "get the big bucks".

Re:Another reason

[superwiz]

Another reason for Americans to not study programming.

To be more precise, another reason for Americans not to study programming on Android. According to the summary only 1/4 of 4 million Indian developers are working on mobile. And these are supposed to be additional 2 million developers. So the program plans to increase the number of Indian developers by 50%. I have to admit, this seriously gives me pause about having learn-android-platform on my todo list. It moves it somewhere below learn-cobol level. I am surprised to see this come out of Google though. Instead of finding ways to automate many tasks of Android development they decide to hand it off to be done through repetitive cheap human labor. Didn't expect it from the company which used to strive to be at the forefront of development. I am curious though what Kurzweil thinks of it. It's certainly a move towards flattening the singularity trend rather than allowing it to spike.

Re:Another reason

[Anonymous Coward]

the north american indigenous population was mistakenly called 'indians' by some dumb white guy in the 1400s who got lost on his way to the india in asia. don't be like him, they're 'native americans' in the u.s., 'first nations' in canada.

the native americans, btw, are too busy counting all their money made off the dumb white man at their casinos to worry about petty things like mobile app development.

Re:Another reason

[RabidReindeer]

Except that an H1-B can come to America, work for a couple of years,send money home and return to retire quite comfortably by Indian standards.

A B1-H would go to India, work for a couple of years and return to apply for a job as a Wal-Mart greeter.

Re: Another reason

[JaredOfEuropa]

There is demand for quality coders everywhere I look. Problem is: companies seem to be able to select halfway decent coders from the absolute rubbish ones, but they are poor at spotting real talent, and (perhaps as a result) are unwilling to pay for it. I've had these discussions a few times, project manager or dept head wants a top coder for a difficult job, I tell them I can recommend someone but he does charge €x / hour, after which the response is "are you f-ing nuts?!". They do sometimes pay top rates for top talent to jump on a project and fix stuff that the team cannot handle, but they see it as paying troubleshooter / interim rates. Sure, you can hire 2 average coders instead of 1 really good one, or 6 Indians, but what these managers fail to understand is that the good one will do more than twice the work of the average ones and over 6 times of what the Indians will produce. Not because they are superhumanly fast coders, but because they help managers and teams avoid the mistakes they are crying about now.

Companies want (demand, beg for) quality coders, but only when their project goes tits up. caught early in unit tests, etc.

Re:Another reason

[JaredOfEuropa]

You might want to rethink that: Cobol guys make good money. It's kind of like learning SAP: it's soul-suckingly dreadful work but it pays very well, and SAP / ERP people always seem to be in good demand.

If you want to learn app development, look into cross-platform stuff. I'm having a decent experience with Xamarin (coding in C#, which is better than Objective-C and chocolate-and-sprinkles-covered-heavenly better than Java on Android), and there are some other options.

Re: Another reason

[Opportunist]

There is no need to hire some expensive troubleshooter for insane rates if, and only if, you don't try to cut corners by hiring crappy coders in the first place.

Re: Another reason

[Opportunist]

Of course, that's why we need far more women to study STEM fields. Can't be that only men are unemployed!

Re:Another reason

[Opportunist]

Is that for real? European here, wants to know: Does WalMart really hire people who do nothing but, well, greet people as they enter the store? Or is that some euphemism for an essentially useless job where someone who is otherwise unemployable gets a meaningless job, like being a TSA agent?

Re:Another reason

[Anonymous Coward]

Is that for real? European here, wants to know: Does WalMart really hire people who do nothing but, well, greet people as they enter the store? Or is that some euphemism for an essentially useless job where someone who is otherwise unemployable gets a meaningless job, like being a TSA agent?

Would you believe it's both? I ask because it is both.

Re: Another reason

[Fire_Wraith]

That would imply paying for quality in the first place, which management tends to be allergic to the idea of doing.

Re: Another reason

[ranton]

The myth is that quality coders are actually in demand now. How hard is it to find a good job even if you know your stuff? If you want to get ahead today, become a doctor or nurse or something. I'm only in tech because I like video games.

You just gave me an idea for an interview question. Just ask if the candidate feels there is a shortage for quality software engineers. If they say it is a myth, they certainly aren't a quality candidate. Rates for quality engineers keep going up because they have ample proof their skills are in demand.

I'd agree most companies don't pay their IT teams very well, but that is why they are stuck with crap teams. This perpetuates their belief that programmers don't deserve higher wages, and their teams remain below par. Well, maybe at par since so many companies are like this. None of this means quality coders aren't in demand, but it is a reason there is such a wide gap in salaries between average programmers and elite ones.

Re:Another reason

[cayenne8]

Google is an American company...well, at least they started here.

WTF aren't they doing things like this HERE in the US for our own citizens? At least have the courtesy to do it in your native land FIRST!!!

Re: Another reason

[AmiMoJo]

Companies just want something that works. It doesn't have to be good, it just has to perform the function required of it. Occasionally there is a business case for quality, but mostly it's about getting something functional cheaply. That's why you end up with hack on top of hack, because doing a proper fix means time and money invested. It's short sighted but there is rarely much incentive to look at the long term.

The market doesn't value quality very highly either. Lots of great products die because there is a worse but cheaper one, or because the competition spent more on sales staff and underhand business practices. That affects Indian companies too, for example Zoho Office is pretty good actually, but somehow couldn't compete with the much more basic Google Apps and Microsoft Office Online.

As such, it's hard to make the business case for paying for good developers.

Just what we need

[NotQuiteReal]

2 million MORE newbs who THINK they can program. And can post to the app store, um Play (yeah, because all my apps are a frolic).

Uh huh....

[Anonymous Coward]

So much for white privilege. Last time I checked, my account had no white privilege deposit. Our tech companies are giving the farm away to the Indians, Vietnamese, Chinese, and anyone else who will work for shit wages. Google and its ilk are driving down the salaries for IT workers in the literal race to zero. What with everyone replacing their workers with robotics, the BS $15 fast food wages about to kill those jobs, the US is rapidly becoming a 3rd-world taco stand with semi-decent pizza.

I live in TX and, as an example, if you "wanted" to work construction here, no one would hire you--because your white. Ditto the farms, agriculture biz, fast food, you name it. Texas land owners as well as Texas businesses prefer to hire Mexicans--illegal or otherwise for work. Drive by any gas station on a weekday morning and there are dozens of Mexicans waiting around for the white man to come and collect them in pickup trucks to go and do their thing.

I was thinking of starting a lawn care business, but it's impossible because the Mexicans have driven down the prices to what a white guy cannot live on. It's easy for them to live compared to us because they are willing to live in shit conditions and 8-10 in an apartment or tiny house. Who the hell want to live with their extended family? I sure as hell don't.

I work in IT in Texas--Houston area--and IT sucks here. All of the oil and gas companies have laid off so many IT people, they are now competing for the crappy jobs that remain. IT pays little here compared to other places. Austin is an IT hub, but the traffic sucks worse than Houston, it's more expensive and it's a hipster enclave.

I've been in IT across 3 decades and I'm seriously considering getting out, but I have no damn clue what to do since IT is all I know.

Re:Uh huh....

[Anonymous Coward]

You have a great future in whining.

Re:Uh huh....

[OzPeter]

Texas land owners as well as Texas businesses prefer to hire Mexicans--illegal or otherwise for work. Drive by any gas station on a weekday morning and there are dozens of Mexicans waiting around for the white man to come and collect them in pickup trucks to go and do their thing.

There's your self entitlement for you. Thinking that you can hire illegals and day workers for the cheapest price so that you benefit the most, but screw what it does to your local economy.

I was thinking of starting a lawn care business, but it's impossible because the Mexicans have driven down the prices to what a white guy cannot live on. It's easy for them to live compared to us because they are willing to live in shit conditions and 8-10 in an apartment or tiny house. Who the hell want to live with their extended family? I sure as hell don't.

And it strikes again. You have this belief that you are above living with an extended family. No matter that for 99% of humanities existence, and for 99% of the rest of the world that's just the way it is. But no, your'e too good for that.

I work in IT in Texas--Houston area--and IT sucks here. All of the oil and gas companies have laid off so many IT people, they are now competing for the crappy jobs that remain. IT pays little here compared to other places. Austin is an IT hub, but the traffic sucks worse than Houston, it's more expensive and it's a hipster enclave.

More judgmental complaining. Don't people have a right to be a hipster if they wish?

I've been in IT across 3 decades and I'm seriously considering getting out, but I have no damn clue what to do since IT is all I know.

You have a connection to most fantastic library in the entire history of the world, a truly wondrous trove of information, yet you have no clue who you really are or what you want to do. And that is your fundamental problem. You have no idea who you are. Perhaps you should take time for some introspection.

Re:Uh huh....

[arglebargle_xiv]

You have a great future in whining.

So maybe go work in Napa Valley somewhere? There are lots of little lifestyle whineries there.

Re:Uh huh....

[TheGratefulNet]

I predict and fully expect to see a rise in american 'terrorism', where americans have been out of work long enough to lose thier homes and feel that they have nothing left so 'fuck it, I'm going on a rampage'.

god help us all once this eventually happens. google and the rest all have the police in their pockets and anyone trying to rush the google campus will get the full riot police on thier asses, but when you have nothing left, you have nothing left to lose. hell, I've been close to that point, myself, feeling quite abandoned by my american 'brothers' who are running the US companies into the ground.

keep depressing local wages and sending jobs overseas. keep it up. you WILL create more locals who want to see you die.

or, maybe start thinking about easing off the outsourcing and h1b's and put americans (who really need and deserve jobs) back to work in a living wage again.

your choice. we rush your gates or you keep us fed.

give it 5-10 more years and this will be on the news.

Re:Uh huh....

[Ol Olsoc]

There's your self entitlement for you. Thinking that you can hire illegals and day workers for the cheapest price so that you benefit the most, but screw what it does to your local economy.

And therin lies the strangest set of paradoxes you will ever find. The people who follow the presumed head of the anti-immigration movement and his plan to make another country build a wall in order to keep them out are likely to be the ones harmed by immigrant workers.

As well, this people are convinced that we need a business leader to fix this problem, when businesses are the cause of the problem.

As well, there is a remarkably simple way to cut way back on illegal immigrants at very little cost. If a business owner is caught hiring illegals to do the business they are doing, toss their sorry ass in jail. We're Americans - its what we do to support the incarceration industry.

If illegal immigrants have no possibility of getting work and money here in the USA, and if anyone hiring one catches a felony and prison time, it will go a long way towards taking care of that problem. And a few business owners in prison are a lot cheaper than walling off the US.

Is this available to the US also?

[Anonymous Coward]

We are the ones providing all the tax breaks for google to make its billions, so now we not only import people for jobs that supposedly cant be filled, but we are now providing training to those people taking jobs away from people who are already employed here in the States? I hate apple, but I think this may just convince me to switch. I see no reason to pay for the right to cost someone else their job.

Re:Is this available to the US also?

[PolygamousRanchKid]

I think they started the whole "designed in America" thing so that people could somehow feel like they give a shit about the country they're headquartered in.

Actually, I bought a Harmon Kardon receiver/amplifier back in the 1970's . . . and it had that same statement stamped on the back . . . "designed in America".

So this Schtick is not new to me . . .

Re:Is this available to the US also?

[TheGratefulNet]

strongly disagree, people of your own country ARE ENTITLED to jobs IN THEIR OWN COUNTRY.

the fact that you don't get this, its very telling, indeed.

the whole POINT of a country is to protect and give pref treatment to the people who grew up there, paid taxes all their lives, have invested in that place and often, their parents were from there and their kids will stay there.

yes, I, who grew up here in the US, demand to have first right of jobs over some foreigner who did nothing for the US, and in fact, won't do anything for the US once they take their money away and return home, later on.

I have more right to american jobs than indians who were not born here do. they are arrogant AS FUCK, thinking they really do have as much rights as the locals do.

let me turn it around: if I were to move to india, would I - and should I - expect the same rights as locals? of course not!

get real, indians. you don't deserve more rights or even the same rights as those who are invested here and who are part of this country, for the long-run. long after you leave, the rest of us will still be here, picking up the pieces you left behind.

you bet we have a right to jobs ahead of you. the fact that you don't see it proves the point even more how much you DO NOT UNDERSTAND what america is about.

Re:Is this available to the US also?

[Required Snark]

Google should be forced to register as the agent of a foreign government. When they make that level of commitment to India (or anywhere else) they are exploiting their privileged position in the US at the expense of the people and economy here. They take all the government support, tax breaks (which they get by lobbying) and legal advantages of being based in the US and effectively transfer wealth to India to improve their bottom line. Short of industrial spying it's hard to be any more aggressive about putting the interests of one country above another.

Of course IBM is way ahead if them in this regard. A few years ago they quit reporting the number of people employed per country. That's a clear sign they know they have something to hide.

Here's an idea: US companies that have overseas branches have to report the number of employees the have in all the countries they do business (roll in consultants as well). Make exemptions for smaller firms, or companies that take no US tax deductions or other government assistance. It's an impossible dilemma for companies that are trying to have it both ways. Do they give up all the subsidies, both direct and by tax tricks, or do they have to admit that they are parasites?

If this was put forward in legislation American business interests would squeal like stuck pigs. They want to grab as much as they can from the public coffers without having to admit anything or face any consequence. They figure, correctly, that as long as they can keep the public in the dark about how they play this rigged game that they can get away with almost anything.

And if you think this is bad, just wait for the TPP to kick in. If it does happen, US employment figures will be dropping by multiple percentage point on a quarterly basis. It might take a few years to get that bad, but considering it is primarily intended to move jobs overseas no one should be surprised. This is exactly what happens when greedy self serving corporate interest run amok. Under the hood it's just like the 2008 economic meltdown. In that case Wall Street had no effective oversight on real estate lending and almost took down the entire world economy. With the TPP the corporate class is now negotiating international trade policy solely for it's own profit. It is entirely likely that this next folly will make 2008 look like a walk in the park compared to the antipersonnel cluster bomb that is the TPP.

if they would fit them with typewriters,

[serbanp]

they would create a new Shakespeare play in no time at all. Better than coding.

There is a lot of truth to this

[Anonymous Coward]

Most Indians I've had the displeasure to work around were constantly leaning on their white counterparts for help. They DO crank out "paper tigers" just like it was here in the US back in the late 90s where the certification mills were cranking out MCSEs who couldn't tell you the difference between WINS and DNS. Ditto now the Linux certs for Docker. The IT security world is awash with paper tigers. I was in that world for 5 years and got the hell out because the IT security guys tend to be an aggressive set of asshats for whatever reason. Most of them don't know crap.

American tech companies care about the bottom line. Fine. I understand that you have the evil shareholders barking at you. It's cheaper in the long run to hire and keep American workers. No one sees this. No one will.

I spoke with many an Indian who said they took the job here in the US to work for 3-5 years so they could buy outright their house in India and be able to take a ho-hum job there paying far less. Many do that. Meanwhile, here in the US, American companies screw over Americans for a pat on the back from the shareholders. The crows are coming home to roost one day. Pretty soon, there will be nothing left but shitty service jobs. If you are not in machine learning, AI, robotics, game development/design, or data warehousing/DBA/development, your job is in danger.

A radical idea

[Okian Warrior]

Here's a radical idea.

Hey google - why don't you train 2 million Americans?

Re:A radical idea

[mi]

Hey google - why don't you train 2 million Americans?

Because that might, accidentally, help make America great again... That just wouldn't do, would it?..

Re:A radical idea

[backslashdot]

There are numerous courses for free download already available. I don't get it, there is nothing preventing anyone from learning Android programming, or almost any other kind of programming. It's totally free. Google has had Android tutorials online for a few years now. If those don't work for you there are others.

The name of their initiative

[93 Escort Wagon]

code.h1b

Re:TRANSLATION

[advocate_one]

About 10% seem to really know their shit,

be afraid then, because that means there's going to be some 200,000 more developers that really know their shit...

Re:I hear ancient ghostly echoes

[ArmoredDragon]

Well, I think training developers is probably a better idea than dancing around and shouting "developers" with the intent that it will start raining developers.

Stack Overflow

[Hognoxious]

Stack Overflow already ordered some extra servers.

Re:TRANSLATION

[bayankaran]

I am your Indian software developer.

If a developer is not capable, its for the organization to do something about it. If the organization/enterprise prefers a developer because he/she charges less though he/she is incompetent, then blame the organization, not the worker.

Also, most of the enterprise software work - for that matter most of web application development, including Android - needs someone who can understand the process and connect the dots. Genuinely good and imaginative programmers will be bored out of their wits in no time.

It seems you are mediocre yourself.

Re:Run Android apps on mainstream Linux

[johanw]

Root your android and install a firewall, rights manager (Xprivacy is the best I know), and a tool to disable services so you can kill Google ad and analytics services. That should givre you some edge.

In 2009

[williamyf]

In 2009, when microsoft did their "Elevate America" training FOR AMERICANS, the Slashdot Collective complained, loud and clear...

https://it.slashdot.org/story/09/02/23/220227/microsoft-unveils-elevate-america

I am guessing the Hindustanis will not complain so loudly, if at all...

Enjoy

this was my comment in 2009:

"Lets only hope That RedHat, Suse and the FSF come up with similar programs, both in breadth and # of persons reached.

That way, the computer Illiterate can choose what technology to learn, and are armed and ready when the ceconomy picks up in three years time...

And let's also hope that Microsoft, RedHat, Suse, the FSF, Cisco, Juniper, IBM, Oracle, Sun and the gang rememeber that this is a GLOBAL crisis, and launch similar programs worldwide....

Bridging the "digital divide" will only be good for America and for the World

Salud!"

Re:TRANSLATION

[AmiMoJo]

"Schools To Train 2 Million In Mathematics"

TRANSLATION:

"Schools To Produce 2 Million Mathematicians"

Hmm... Doesn't seem right. Could it be that education doesn't guarantee everyone who has it is a grand master in that subject, but that some percentage do go on to excel and a larger number go on to produce useful, perfectly adequate work?

Walmart greeters

[colinrichardday]

Yes, Walmart hires people to greet customers at the door.

Re:Walmart greeters

[Opportunist]

Do they have some secondary, "hidden" job, like, looking out for shoplifters or the like?

I just can't believe they actually pay people for what the beggar in front of my usual supermarket does for "free": Annoy the living crap out of customers.

Indians, huh ?

[vikingpower]

Expect spaghetti code, tons of boilerplate code, no design pattern application at all, classes with verbs in their name, brute-forcing every search and every sort, duplicated methods or duplicated method bodies, variables in subclasses hiding variables in superclasses, deadlock and race conditions, and - most of all - having to undo then redo it all by yourself.

I just stole your job and I am proud of it!

[Master5000]

HAHAHA it's always funny to see american losers complain. Full disclosure: I am one of the guys that is stealing your jobs and I am enjoying every minute of it. You know why? Because if I make 1500$ a month in my country I am called rich since the average salary is 250$ around here. For you 1500$ is shit. You all want big houses and brand new cars but guess what? You've priced yourselves out of your market. I can do what you can do at least as well if not better for a much lower salary. The corporations win, I win, the Indians win, everybody wins. Everybody except little whiners like you! We operate under extreme pressure and DON'T COMPLAIN! You, on the other hand, are little bitches compared to us. It's all evolution after all. Survival of the fittest. I can live in conditions that you wouldn't even have bad dreams about, I adapt. You die. I and others like me win. Plus, let's not forget that we outbreed you. The end of the western bitches. Bye bye!