Electronics and IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw emphasized that India has been great in the service sector and now it must also strive to become a product nation. Speaking at the Indian Web Browser Development Challenge and Chips to Startup Programme award ceremony in New Delhi this evening, Mr. Vaishnaw highlighted a shift from the traditional approach of only select government institutions led development-to a collaborative model. He noted that today, academia, startups, students, and researchers are coming together to drive innovation and create new solutions. He said, the solutions have to come from all aspects of the industry and all talented people must join hands together and bring the solutions.
The Minister said the government threw open the challenge to develop indigenous browsers and academia, startups, students, and researchers responded enthusiastically. Mr Vaishnaw said the advantages of India’s own browser will be the security of the data, it will be compliant with the Data Protection Act. data of Indian citizens will be India only and this browser will be compatible with iOS, Windows and Android. He said, developing a browser is the first concrete step towards building the entire Indian concrete stack soon.
The Minister expressed immense pride in the participants who demonstrated outstanding innovations, remarkable creativity, and expertise and made significant strides in the development of a reliable web browser tailored to Indian needs. Mr Vaishnaw said it is heartening to see that winners are coming from Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities.
Secretary, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, S. Krishnan highlighted the importance of indigenous Web Browser and its features.
Zoho Corporation emerged as a winner. Team PING- a startup emerged 1st Runner-Up and another startup, Team Ajna ended up as the 2nd Runner-Up. Recognizing their outstanding contributions, an award one of crore rupees, 75 lakh rupees and 50 lakh rupees was given to the winners.
The Indian Web Browser Development Challenge was launched setting the stage for a transformative journey in web browsing. A remarkable 434 teams registered for the challenge, embarking on a rigorous and competitive journey. As the challenge unfolded, eight outstanding teams made it to the final stage, where their innovations were evaluated by a distinguished Jury Panel.
