Software majors Microsoft and Autodesk will provide free software to students and engineering faculty in colleges under the ambit of the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE).

AICTE Chairman S.S. Mantha signed MoUs with Autodesk Chief Education Officer Joe Asthroth and Microsoft General Manager - Developer Partner Evangelism Moorthy Uppaluri Friday.

The step will benefit nearly 50 lakh students and over 3 lakh faculty all over the country as unique ID and passwords will be provided to them.

"We have already provided unique IDs to institutes under AICTE and now are in the process of providing unique ID to students and faculty," Mantha said.

Lauding the step, Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal said: "It is an enormous empowering device, the more the access increases, the more students will be benefited."