Ajay Prakash Sawhney, Secretary, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, on Monday said that the massive gap in online Indic content and the growing number of internet users in India throws up a huge business opportunity.

Speaking at 'Bhashantara - The Symposium for Indian Languages Technology Industry', organized by FICCI, Sawhney said that while there is phenomenal growth in Indian language users keen to navigate their way through the treasure of the internet, the amount of Indic content has not grown proportionately.

"Vast number of Indians do not have the opportunity to access the rich content on internet in their respective languages. Such massive gaps not only throw up a huge economic opportunity but also a huge opportunity to create new technologies for India and the rest of the world," he said.

FICCI-Indian Language Internet Alliance (FICCI-ILIA), an industry alliance working for the development of a robust Indic language ecosystem, organized its annual flagship symposium in association with Ministry of Electronics and Information and Technology, MyGov, and TDIL.

"I welcome the initiatives taken by FICCI-ILIA to bring key stakeholders from across the country together to develop a robust Indic internet ecosystem that will allow for more internet services to be offered in Indic, and truly promote digital empowerment of India," Mr Sawhney said.

Anuradha Mitra, Secretary, Department of Official Languages, Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India, said, "India has a remarkable diversity in terms of languages written and spoken in different parts of the country. This makes India a unique country in the world. A robust and multilingual Indic internet will enable around half a billion people in India to use the internet effectively."

Ajay Data, Co-Chair, ICT and Digital Economy Committee, FICCI, said, "Our objective is to keep expanding our efforts to support the governments 'Digital India' vision to propel the next wave of growth for content generators, content enablers, advertisers and other stakeholders of the Indic ecosystem, paving the way for India to realize its full potential as a $1 trillion digital economy."

Sandeep Nulkar, Senior Member, FICCI-ILIA, acknowledged the contributions of all the partners of Bhashantara. Winners of 'BhashaAnuvad Translation Competition' were felicitated by Mr Sawhney and Ms Mitra during the event.