Challenge

TCS leverages its leadership in the IT space to run innovative programs that address access to education and skilling challenges facing the community at large. Its solutions in the skilling field include BPS Employability Training, a 100-hour program that has provided well-rounded education to over 66,000 youngsters from marginalized communities so far, and IT Employability Training, which has trained nearly 2,400 students from rural engineering and science colleges in technical and business skills and general aptitude.

We offer similar computer-based programs for adult education, chiefly in the form of our Adult Literacy Program. This solution has used ICT-based teaching in nine Indian and three foreign languages to aid the education of over 388,000 adults so far. Then there is BridgeIT, which empowers marginalized communities using digital tools. In FY17 alone, we reached out to nearly 19,200 beneficiaries. Our Empower program has imparted computer- and language-related knowledge to 4,900 TCS support staff since inception. Over 850 participants have also gained from our Teacher Empowerment Program, which helps them hone their soft skills.

While these programs were for an older audience, TCS also runs several initiatives to prepare children for a Digital future. These include LaunchPad, a gamified solution that has taught 5,700 students across geographies programming logic, and InsighT, which has introduced 12,700 senior secondary school students to software development. Thanks to popular demand, the latter was launched on the cloud in 2016.

TCS has also set up several brick-and-mortar solutions to address systemic issues. These include the Digital Impact Square (DISQ) in Nashik, Maharashtra, which was set up in 2016 to facilitate young innovators in finding Digital solutions to challenging social problems. In January 2017, the 60,000-sq-ft Kohli Research Block was inaugurated at IIIT Hyderabad to promote research, teaching, and entrepreneurship in the area of broad intelligent systems. TCS also supports Tata Strive in running comprehensive skilling centers for underprivileged youth at Hyderabad and Mumbai.