Will somebody think about the children all that money!

Summary: The All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) decides to help companies from the United States increase their revenue, obviously instead of teaching young Indians real computer skills and actual methods

It is a sad day in India. Just as Ballmer is looking to recruit students for his "Ballmer youth"-like movement where everyone serves him and his clan, the AICTE jumps in and "signs agreement to make students slaves of Autodesk, Microsoft," to quote FOSSCOM:

In an effort to provide students, faculty and educational institutions with free access to development software, the All India Council for Technical Education on Friday signed an agreement with two private players to improve learning in the field.

Was it EDGI again? Microsoft publicly calls it something else ("Unlimited Potential" is a common banner) and Siobhan Stevenson has a long new article about it. From the abstract:

Unlimited potential, unlimited power? Microsoft's corporate citizenship in the battle over new social relations of production

This paper explores the increasingly important role a new corporate social responsibility movement is playing in international development. Using a critical policy approach, the overarching question posed is: what ideological work does Microsoft Corporation’s world–wide philanthropic programs, and specifically its Unlimited Potential (UP) program, perform within the context of contemporary class struggles over the new means and relations of production? At the heart of this question is the ongoing battle between the free and open source software movement or FOSS and the proprietary software lobby as represented by Microsoft.

Glyn Moody jokes about the philanthropic PR that's used in conjunction with this. Sometimes the Gates Foundation is used for this. ⬆