New Delhi [India], March 20 (ANI): Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on Thursday said that the focus of the government is to develop India into a product nation.

Addressing an award ceremony of the Indian Web Browser Development Challenge in New Delhi, the Union Minister said, 'The first point is we as a country have been a great service nation; now we must become a product nation.'

'We must now also become a product nation. So whatever you are seeing here today is basically some multi-step in that journey. That journey involved software products as well as hardware products, both categories and within hardware, analog products, and digital products. That's the thought process with which we are moving,' he added.

He said that the old mindset that the government institutions will develop everything should be eliminated.

'Old mindset where only certain government institutions would be developing everything has to now be given to a new mindset where a much broader partnership of academia, startups, and student researchers. They all must join together to create new solutions,' he added.

The Union Minister said that people must join hands together and bring the solutions.

The Indian Web Browser Development Challenge was organised by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), Controller of Certifying Authorities (CCA), and Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) under the Government of India's 'Aatmanirbhar Bharat' initiative.

The challenge was aimed to showcase excellence in indigenous browser development. The challenge, which began in August 2023, had a rigorous three-stage evaluation process: Ideation, Prototype, and Productisation.

Three companies in the service sector named Zoho, Ping, and Ajna were selected as the winners of the challenge. (ANI)