FICCI’s XR Open Source Fellowship program gets Meta support

Facebook parent Meta is supporting Federation of Indian Chamber of Commerce & Industry (FICCI) with $1 million for the XR Open Source (XROS) fellowship program. Run by FICCI, XROS will support 100 Indian developers working on XR (extended reality) technologies by providing them with fellowships which includes stipend and mentoring. The National e-Governance Division, an initiative of the Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology (MeitY), will be the technical partner to the program.
The program will support developers to make contributions to open source projects related to the XR technology and will further lay the foundation for India-specific solutions that are affordable, appropriate and localized to Indic languages. The XROS program is part of Meta’s global XR Programs and Research Fund under which the company announced a $2 million fund for the XR Startup program with MeitY Startup Hub earlier this year. XROS further aims to provide developers with the resources they need to create digital public goods and generate potential employment opportunities in the field of XR technologies. The XR Open Source program is the second program in India through which Meta aims to boost the developer ecosystem around immersive technologies and will further the open ecosystem for building the metaverse.

Building the metaverse
Other Meta supported open source initiatives include No Language Left Behind (NLLB), a single multilingual AI model which supports 200 low resource languages, including 25 Indian languages. Last year the company partnered with the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) to bring immersive technologies to over 10 million students and 1 million educators over the next three years. The partnership with CBSE underscores Meta’s commitment to India, and reflects the joint ambition to universalize STEM education by ensuring that students across India have equitable access to quality educational content which will prepare them for the Future of Work in a digitally powered economy.
“The metaverse won’t be built by one company alone. Through programs like XR Open Source, we will support Indian developers working on these exciting technologies. With their talent, insight and effort, we hope to ensure the next generation of internet technologies are built in an open, collaborative and accessible way,” said Nick Clegg, president, global affairs, Meta.