NEW DELHI: Blind users have difficulty navigating unfamiliar indoor spaces, reading signs, or understanding visual cues. Most people take this for granted. This problem is what prompted Neymar Sharma, 20, a student at Chitkara University on the outskirts of Chandigarh, to create Blind Bridge, an accessibility-focused app that aims to make daily navigation easier for visually impaired users.
His app uses intuitive vibration-based sensing, and has earned Sharma a place among the featured winners of Apple’s Swift Student Challenge 2026 – one of seven winners from India selected this year.But beyond the individual confession, Sharma’s story reflects something bigger that Apple is increasingly betting on: India’s fast-growing developer ecosystem.Speaking ahead of the Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) 2026, Susan Prescott, Apple’s vice president of Global Developer Relations, said India has emerged as one of the company’s most vibrant developer markets, driven by a combination of global ambition, entrepreneurship and student engagement.
“It’s been really exciting to see a large developer community in India now, which is still growing rapidly,” Prescott said.“What’s interesting is the global nature of what developers are doing in India. Many developers want to make an impact locally, but they also benefit from the App Store’s global reach.”This global reach is becoming increasingly important for Indian developers. According to an Apple-backed study released in April, India’s App Store ecosystem facilitated Rs 44,447 crore in billings and sales in 2024, while global earnings for India-based developers have tripled over the past five years.
Nearly 80% of the revenue generated by Indian developers now comes from users outside the country. More than 17,000 developers have been linked to the Developer Center in Bengaluru.
Back in 2023, Apple claimed that 1 million jobs were created around the developer ecosystem in India. However, these numbers seem small compared to China. There are reportedly nearly two million iOS developers in China, while App Store billings were also ten times higher than those in India.However, Apple says the App Store ecosystem now extends to 175 storefronts globally, allowing Indian developers to expand internationally much faster than before. In 2024 alone, apps developed in India were downloaded more than 755 million times worldwide through the App Store.A major part of Apple’s push in India has been the Apple Developer Center, where Apple engineers work directly with developers. Prescott said the center has become an important hub not only for technical direction, but also for fostering a sense of community among developers.
reconnaissance
How often do you think developers in India should collaborate with international developers?
