The Government of India and the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) organized a two-day event on Universal Acceptance Day (UAD) on the 27th and 28th of March to promote multilingual Internet and digital inclusion in India. The event highlighted the necessity of providing emails and websites in native languages to enable access to the Internet and bridge the digital divide across the nation.

The event was attended by some of the key decision-makers, including Bhuvnesh Kumar,  IAS, Additional Secretary, MeitY, Abhishek Singh, President & CEO- NeGD, MeitY, Edmon Chung, Board Director, ICANN, Ajay Data, Chair UASG, Tripti Sinha, ICANN Board Chair, Sally Costerton, CEO, ICANN, Dr. Subi Chaturvedi, Global SVP & Chief Corporate Affairs & Public Policy Officer, InMobi, Jia-Rong Low, Vice President & MD, APAC, ICANN, Anil Kumar Jain, CEO, NIXI, Asha Nangia, Scientist G (MeitY), T Santhosh, Scientist ‘E’, Internet Governance Division, MeitY, Nitin Wali, Senior Director of Stakeholder Engagement, ICANN, and others.

The participants discussed ways to provide a multilingual internet user interface to bridge the digital divide. They also highlighted the importance of adopting UA in India and its potential to add 500 million broadband users, promote startup ecosystems and generate employment opportunities in the country.

The event included various workshops and sessions on topics such as ‘Socio-Economic aspects of UA and Multilingual Internet and its impact on public policy,’ ‘Technology enablement for universal acceptance – challenges and mitigation,’ ‘Introduction to Universal Acceptance (UA),’ ‘Making your website Universal Acceptance ready: Way Forward,’ ‘Universal Acceptance work in India,’ ‘Importance of UA for multi-cultural society in India,’ etc.

The event was also celebrated globally in 42 countries with the goal of raising awareness and break language barriers to make the Internet accessible to more people.

The big picture: Universal Acceptance means building a technical environment to allow computing devices, operating systems, browsers, social media or e-commerce to accept instructions in local languages other than English and ensure valid domain names and email addresses, regardless of script, language or character length. This is an important step towards creating a safe, secure and accessible internet for all. It will also help India in achieving its goal of becoming a USD 1 trillion digital economy.