When browsing the internet, one is very likely to use one of the following browsers:
Edge
Chrome
Safari
Firefox
DuckDuckGo
Opera
etc.
All browsers dial home.
None of them is made in India.
How do we know whether a website is safe? Based on a certificate. These certificates are issued by global companies like Verisign, Digicert, Comodo, etc.
Every browser has something called a root certificate. This root certificate tells the browser to trust all websites that are certified by that particular provider.
At this time, even though we have a Controller of Certifying Authorities (CCA) for India, the certificates issued by them are ignored by most browsers like Edge, Chrome (which holds almost 90% market share in India, according to Statcounter), etc.
CCA has set up the Root Certifying Authority of India under the IT Act, but the root certificates have not been added by international browsers.
The third issue is that Indian languages have their own UTF-8 code, most international browsers do not really support Indian script fonts. This means that either we are not able to see the Indian scripts, or they appear garbled or unclear.
Needed: A Browser for India
This is why India needs to develop its own browser.
Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology (MeitY), CCA, and C-DAC (Center for Development of Advanced Computing) have launched the Indian Web Browser Development Challenge.
What will this browser do?
Among other things, the browser is required to have their own trust-stores, pre-loaded with CCA India Root Certificate, which is a self-signed certificate and is the top-most (root) certificate of the tree, that serves as a trust anchor.
Who can compete?
Individuals in teams of 3-7 participants, startups, MSMEs, companies, etc. can participate.
Organisations should be registered in India.
Prizes
How to participate?
Participation is by registering on the website of the contest.
All images (except where indicated) from event website, featured image released by Government of India.