In a first of its kind effort aimed to offer a platform for development of software skills for the students, computing giant IBM on Thursday declared its tie-ups with three engineering and technology colleges in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh.

The collaboration has brought the establishment of a series of IBM Centres of Excellence.

The Centres of Excellence were launched at Government College, Jabalpur, Shri Vaishnav Institute of Technology and Science, Indore, and Mahakal Institute of Technology, Ujjain.

The colleges would offer infrastructure and high end systems while the US IT service provider would enlarge its whole series of software suite without any charge.

Commenting on this significant tie-up, IBM India vice-president for marketing and ecosystem Anil Menon said: "Students will get first-hand experience of the software products deployed on the campus."