FICCI’s National Committee on Multilingual Internet and Universal Acceptance play a crucial role in enhancing Internet accessibility and inclusivity in India. With over 22 officially recognized languages and numerous dialects, India faces the challenge of ensuring universal online access. With 63% internet penetration, 881 million people go online monthly. The committee promotes multilingual technologies and standards to bridge the digital divide, empowering non-English-speaking users. Collaborating with government agencies like Bhashini, MeitY, and DoL, technology companies, language experts, and civil society, the committee drives initiatives for multilingual content creation, language localization, and universal acceptance of diverse scripts. Through workshops, conferences, and policy dialogues, they unite ministries, industry leaders, and academia to foster linguistic diversity, cultural preservation, and economic opportunities, enabling SMEs to reach new markets through a multilingual online presence. FICCI also runs the official Local Initiative- UA Chapter for India since 2019, and over the years, the chapter has driven numerous initiatives for the growth of UA and Multilingual Internet, focusing on UA implementation, IDNs, UA readiness for Registries and Registrars, and programming support. We have built a community of professionals and experts dedicated to our mission. Our focus areas include generating awareness about UA, IDN and EAI, empowering stakeholders, fostering skills and technical capacity building, advancing initiatives for UA adoption across industry and governments, and strengthening the multistakeholder UA community in India
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