Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology (MeitY) launched the Indian Web Browser Development Challenge (IWBDC) on 9th August 2023 in Launch Programme organized at India Habitat Centre, New Delhi. Smt. Sunita Verma, Scientist G & Group Coordinator (R&D in Electronics & Information Technology), Shri Arvind Kumar, Controller of Certifying Authorities, MeitY and Dr. S. D. Sudarshan, Executive Director C-DAC, Bangalore jointly launched the browser development challenge. A key requirement of this competition is that the browser ideas must trust the Controller of Certifying Authorities (CCA), the Indian government’s authority responsible for digital signatures, including SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) certificates.
Web Browser
- The web browser is an application software to explore www (World Wide Web). It provides an interface between the server and the client and requests to the server for web documents and services.
- It works as a compiler to render HTML which is used to design a webpage.
- Whenever we search for anything on the internet, the browser loads a web page written in HTML, including text, links, images, and other items such as stylesheet and JavaScript functions.
- Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, Mozilla Firefox, and Safari are examples of web browsers.
Indian Web Browser Development Challenge
- The IWBDC is an Open Challenge Competition that seeks to inspire and empower technology enthusiasts, innovators, and developers from all corners of the country to create an indigenous web browser.
- It will have its own trust store with an inbuilt Controller of Certifying Authorities (CCA) India root certificate, cutting edge functionalities and enhanced security & data privacy protection features.
- IWBDC is spearheaded by MeitY, CCA and C-DAC Bangalore.
- The competition is being organised and financed in collaboration with the IT Ministry’s Research and Development division and the National Internet Exchange of India.
Objective
- Proposed browser will focus on accessibility and user friendliness, ensuring built-in support for individuals with diverse abilities.
- Moreover, the browser envisions the ability to digitally sign documents using a crypto token, bolstering secure transactions and digital interactions.
Significance
- The challenge marks a significant stride towards an Aatmanirbhar Bharat, designed to strengthen India’s digital sovereignty through the development of the Indian Web Browser.
- This challenge addresses one of the critical components – Web browser – through which the end users accessing the Internet.
- An SSL certificate is a digital certificate that authenticates a website’s identity and enables an encrypted connection.
- It is a security protocol that creates an encrypted link between a web server and a web browser.
- Companies and organizations need to add SSL certificates to their websites to secure online transactions and keep customer information private and secure.