Meta supports FICCI’s XR Open Source Fellowship initiative, joins NEGD as technical partner

New Delhi : Reinforcing its commitment to accelerate India’s contribution to developing XR technology, META is supporting the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) with $1 million for the XR Open Source (XROS) Fellowship initiative. XROS, powered by FICCI, will support 100 Indian developers working on XR (Extended Reality) technology by providing fellowships, including stipends (salary) and mentorship. National e-Governance Division, an initiative of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MEITY), will be the technical partner of the initiative.

The initiative will support developers to contribute to open source projects related to XR technology and further lay the foundation for India-specific solutions that are affordable, appropriate and localized in Indian languages. The XROS initiative is part of Meta’s Global XR Programs and Research Fund, under which the company earlier this year announced $2 million in funding for XR startup initiatives with the MEITY Startup Hub. XROS aims to provide developers with the resources they need to create digital public goods and create potential employment opportunities in the field of XR technology.

Commenting on the initiative, Nick Clegg, Meta’s Head of Global Affairs said, “Metaverse will not be built by just one company. Through initiatives like XR Open Source, we will support Indian developers working on these exciting technologies. With their expertise, knowledge and efforts, we hope to build the next generation of Internet technologies in an open, collaborative and accessible manner.”

Present at the launch of this initiative, Chief Scientific Advisor to the Government of India, Prof. Ajay Kumar Sood said, “India’s approach to TechEd can only be realized when young developers and start-ups in Tier II and III cities contribute towards enabling future technologies like XR in Metaverse. I am delighted that Fikki and Meta are launching this initiative, which will focus on providing financial incentives to developers while also supporting them with the right guidance to create immersive technologies.”

Speaking about the collaboration for this initiative, NEGD Chairman and CEO Abhishek Singh said, “Open source technology driven ecosystems can play a major role in creating robust digital public goods, which are interoperable and adhere to a federated architecture. Indian developers, especially in Tier II and III cities, will play an important role in shaping the future of emerging technologies and the Metaverse for India and the world. We are delighted to support the XROS initiative and hope that this initiative will act as a catalyst for nurturing an immersive technology developer ecosystem and open source community in India. This will be an important step towards making India’s TechAid this decade.”

Commenting on the importance of this initiative, Devin Narang, FICCI Committee Member and Country Head of Syndicate Renewable Energy, India said, “The XROS Fellowship Program is a uniquely curated initiative aimed at enabling Indian developers to contribute significantly to open source projects related to Extended Reality (XR) technology. In line with the government’s vision to make India a trillion-dollar economy by 2025, this initiative will provide the necessary impetus to spur future investment growth in technology. We thank META and NEGD for collaborating with this initiative.”

The XR Open Source Program is the second such initiative in India, through which Meta aims to foster a developer ecosystem in terms of immersive technologies and will further the open ecosystem to build the Metaverse. Since its inception Meta has supported and launched various open source initiatives such as No Language Left Behind (NLLB), a single multilingual AI model supporting 200 low resource languages, including 25 Indian languages.

Last year Meta partnered with the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) to provide immersive technology to over 10 million students and 1 million teachers over the next 3 years. The partnership with CBSE reflects Meta’s commitment to India, as well as a joint ambition to universalize STEM education and ensure students across India have equal access to quality educational content, equipping them for the future of work in a digitally enabled economy.

In June 2022, Meta launched the Learn Program (LeARn Program) to train 40,000 students in AR and developed the School of AR, a flagship initiative that has trained 1,000 developers to work on advanced capabilities in MetaSpark. META’s XR Programs and Research Fund is a two-year $50 million investment in programs and extended research with industry partners, civil rights groups, government, non-profit organizations and academic institutions.