India’s open source future: A groundswell of developers building in natural language

By Demetris Cheatham, Chief of Staff to the CEO, GitHub

India is home to one of the most vibrant, diverse open source software communities on earth: with 380K developers who made over 9.7 million open source contributions last year alone, creating the digital public infrastructure that powers our world. But this already thriving community is about to get supercharged. A great convergence is reshaping Indian software development as we know it, combining the innovations of the Age of AI with what will become the largest population of software developers on earth by the year 2027.

As early adopters and industry leaders, open source developers are the bellwether for India’s digital economy –a sign of the generational opportunity ahead for the country at large. By empowering open source developers to reach new heights in education and economic opportunity, Indian leaders can drive this great convergence in open source, and across the country.

It all begins with natural language—which is why India should empower open source developers to build in natural language with early-age skilling programs. Thanks to groundbreaking AI tools, we have struck a transformational fusion between the language of a human and a machine, which will empower every child in India to start programming in their native tongue before they’ve even studied English at school.

Whether it be in Hindi, Bengali or Marathi, Indian developers will interpret and build with code–all in their own mother tongue. The New Education Policy of 2020 already initiates a mandate for coding classes for students from class 6 onwards. Now in grade 6, and in many cases, even earlier, students can learn how to code with an AI-assistant at their own speed, in their own words. Not only does this help new learners, but it also helps seasoned professionals. Suddenly, millions of Indian open source developers will be able to stay in the flow, without translating documentation between projects.

They’ll be able to ask questions directly about their code, in whatever language feels most natural—including unlikely engineers in every corner of the country. For example, think of the way open source can change the game for women in a way that has never been done before. While almost half of Indian computer science majors are women, those numbers drop dramatically when it comes to workforce retention. In fact, according to a 2022 World Bank Global Study, the workforce participation for women across India is just 24%. Leaders like Chennai entrepreneur Sankari Sudhar have even called it the dilemma of the “overqualified housewife.”

The ability to code in natural language will lead to a seismic boom in open source participation across India, expanding access and opportunity more widely and completely than anywhere else on earth, at any time in human history. The potential to transform lives through the economic opportunity of software is unparalleled, and nowhere is this potential greater than in India.

As open source collaboration becomes even more accessible, this reality will shift completely. Women across the country will have an entirely open way to engage with software development and utilize their computer science degrees, without making unwanted changes to their lifestyle. Women without computer science backgrounds will have an easy “on-ramp” into the developer ecosystem–a chance to engage in natural language from the very beginning. And by unlocking their creativity and streaming it directly into code, India’s open source ecosystem will drive breakthroughs that reshape the world over. But in order to let it happen, open source developers must have the regulatory daylight they need to build AI right here in India. With the freedom to create and key investments from open source foundations and institutions, there’s no limit to what developers can create.

Already, early signs of their accomplishments are reinforcing India’s central position in the Age of AI–ingraining its status not just as a global leader, but as the global leader in technological innovation. India-based projects like Dotagent and True Foundry are sharing cutting-edge tools for AI agent creation and data storage, respectively, spurring a positive feedback loop that pushes all of software development forward. Countless projects and public repos across the country are replicating this same success, creating a more open future right before our eyes.

In this ecosystem, no matter their language, gender, skill-level, experience, or interests, every Indian developer will have an opportunity to collaborate and create across lines of difference. And together, as one united open source community, India’s developers are bringing that future to life, today.