New Delhi: Building on its commitment to accelerate India’s contribution in developing XR technologies, Meta is supporting Federation of Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) with $1 million for the XR Open Source (XROS) fellowship program. Run by FICCI, XROS will support 100 Indian developers working on XR or extended reality technologies by providing them with fellowships which includes stipend and mentoring. The National e-Governance Division, an initiative of the Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology (MeitY), will be the technical partner to the program.
Present at the launch of the program, Prof Ajay Kumar Sood, Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India, said that India is on the cusp of scientific revolutions in many sectors including extended reality, quantum technologies which is going to be a game-changer in the years to come. Quantum technologies include quantum communications, computing and digital technologies. The health sector will have an invasion by the metaverse much earlier than any other sector, he added.
“The vision for India’s techade can only be achieved when the young developers and start-ups, including those from tier II & III cities, contribute to enabling future technologies like XR in the metaverse. I am glad that FICCI and Meta are launching this initiative which will not only focus on providing a monetary boost to the developers but will also support them with the right mentoring to build immersive technologies,” he added.
Speaking about the partnership on the program, Abhishek Singh, President and CEO of NeGD, (National e-Governance Division), MeitY, Government of India, said: “Open source technology driven ecosystems can play a big role in building robust digital public goods which are interoperable and follow federated architecture. Indian developers, especially from Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities, will play a significant role in shaping the future of emerging technology and the metaverse for India and the world.”
Nick Clegg, President, Global Affairs, Meta, said: “The metaverse won’t be built by one company alone. Through programs like XR Open Source, we will support Indian developers working on these exciting technologies. With their talent, insight and effort, we hope to ensure the next generation of internet technologies are built in an open, collaborative and accessible way.”
Devin Narang, FICCI Committee Member and Country Head, Sindicatum Renewable Energy, said: “XROS Fellowship Program is a uniquely curated initiative aimed at supporting Indian developers to make significant contributions to open source projects related to extended reality (XR) technology. The program will provide the necessary impetus towards fuelling the growth of investments in future technologies in line with the government's vision for making India a trillion-dollar economy by 2025. We thank Meta for their support and NeGD for the partnership on this program.”
The XR Open Source program is the second program in India through which Meta aims to boost the developer ecosystem around immersive technologies and will further the open ecosystem for building the metaverse. From the very beginning, Meta has supported and launched various open source initiatives such as No Language Left Behind (NLLB), a single multilingual AI model which supports 200 low resource languages, including 25 Indian languages.
Last year Meta partnered with the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) to bring immersive technologies to over 10 million students and one million educators over the next three years. The partnership with CBSE underscores Meta’s commitment to India and reflects the joint ambition to universalize STEM education by ensuring that students across India have equitable access to quality educational content which will prepare them for the future of work in a digitally powered economy. /BI/
