The Universal Acceptance Steering Group (UASG) has elected a new Chair and three new Vice Chairs as its leadership team. Made up of representatives from more than 120 companies, governments, and community groups, the UASG works to raise awareness of the importance of UA globally, provide free resources to organizations to help them become UA-ready, and measure the progress of UA adoption.
In April 2023, UASG members elected Anil Kumar Jain (India), CEO of the National Internet Exchange of India (NIXI), as chair. They also elected Nabil Benamar (Morocco), professor of computer sciences at Moulay Ismail University of Meknes, Haixin Duan (China), professor and lead at the Network and Information Security Lab at the Institute for Network Sciences and Cyberspace of Tsinghua University, and Nitin Walia (India), Director of Data Xgen Technologies, as Vice Chairs.
The new leadership team succeeds former Chair Dr. Ajay Data (India), founder and CEO of XgenPlus, who served as Chair for two terms, and former Vice Chairs, Abdalmonem Galila (Egypt), Numbering Planning Manager at the National Telecom Regulatory Authority of Egypt, and Dr. U.B. Pavanaja (India), CEO of Vishva Kannada Software. A handover ceremony was held today in New Delhi, India.
“It has been a privilege to serve as the Chair of the UASG for the last four years and oversee the inaugural UA Day which saw events in over 40 countries,” said Dr. Ajay Data. “Through its dedicated membership of volunteers from around the world the UASG has led the way in raising awareness of UA and developing the solutions needed to make the Internet more inclusive and multilingual. These efforts will help bring the next billion online.”
Under Data’s leadership the UASG worked to raise UA awareness by engaging with key stakeholders globally, developed numerous resources to aid organizations and businesses to become UA-ready, and conducted extensive analysis of the state of UA adoption. Data also oversaw the planning and implementation of the first-ever UA Day, which saw over 50 UA events held in more than 40 countries and territories on or around 28 March, that were aimed at engaging and mobilizing top technical and language communities, companies, governments, and DNS industry stakeholders to become UA-ready.
“I want to thank Ajay Data for his years of leadership and commitment to UA. I know he will continue to work tirelessly to make UA a reality,” said Anil Kumar Jain. “I look forward to progressing the efforts of the UASG and serving as a leader and advocate for UA.”
The newly elected Chair and Vice Chairs assume their roles effective immediately for a two year term from 2023-2025. To learn more about them, visit https://uasg.tech/about/people/.
