As an extension of its “self-reliance” (self-sufficiency) rhetoric, the Indian government has launched a program of indigenously developed web browsers(indian web browser) in India aimed at competing with Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Microsoft Edge, Opera and foreign browsers.

A total of more than 3 crore rupees has been allocated for web browser development. The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology and its component department will monitor the matter.

“We have control over digital affairs. As the country moves towards becoming the world’s third largest economy, we want to reduce our dependence on foreign web browsers for safety and security. Citizens should be at best… web browsers should also be self-reliant,” commented an official.

According to sources, the government is looking to include India’s web security certification authority in the program, with tech giants Google and Mozilla Firefox in their ‘trust stores’.

A list of certification authorities from a good web browser’s trust store or root store. Browsers such as Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox do not include them in their root stores by the official certification agency of India.

About 850 million users in India’s internet market use Google Chrome, with 88.47 percent according to SimilarWeb data as of July. Other browsers such as Safari 5.22 percent, Samsung Internet 1.5 percent, Microsoft Edge 2 percent, Mozilla Firefox 1.28 percent and others 1.53 percent.

The government is active in using and introducing Indian web browsers by 2024. Domestic startups, academic institutions and corporations will participate in the program and provide support to selected pitches throughout the development process.
“Domestic web browsers will be adopted by government Indian browsers. It will be able to hold digital signatures through crypto tokens without being dependent on Web3, but also have indigenous features like Indian language support,” another person said.