What will India’s digital future include? Find out

Washington: As the Internet penetration gains more strength, India is headed to be a huge force in shaping the digital future of the world, a top official of   Mozilla Foundation, makers of Firefox webs browser has said.  

"India is a huge force, not only in terms of people coming online, but also shaping what the digital future can be. As we figure out, how do people understand web, India   absolutely have to be at the core of that," said Mark Surman, Executive Director of the Mozilla Foundation in a  recent interview.  

As the web spreads to the whole of humanity, India and   the talented code developers from India are going to play a key role in the global digital literacy. As in the next decade some five to six billion people are   expected to gain access to the web, Surman said it is   important that everybody understands how web works. "Web literacy is important," he noted.   Having travelled to India several times, Surman is highly   impressed by the talent of Indian techies. 

"One of the things so excited about India is that people   are so aspirational. They are starting to say, how I can make   life better? And Internet is a promise to that aspiration," he   said.   "When I come to India, it is really exciting to see, especially those Mozilla volunteers, that aspiration and see   unlock those things to people, and also they want to teach that to the other people across India," Surman said, adding   that India is playing a key role in the recently launched   global digital literacy programme of Mozilla.  

Mozilla, he said, decided a few years ago that it is not   just important to create open source product, that empower   people to use the web, but also that everybody in the world   understand what they can do on the web.   "Not just to be a consumer, but also to be a creator of the web," Surman said.   Early July, Mozilla launched a two-month global campaign of events known as "Maker Parties" aimed at promoting web   literacy to all people.  

This includes around 2,000 events in 350 cities worldwide in the coming two months and many of them are taking place in   India, which Mozilla describes as a global Internet pioneer.