Epic adds desi touch to Internet browsing

Bangalore-based IT firm Hidden Reflex has released its first web browser 'Epic', which is targeted at Indian users with browser support in 12 Indian languages, including Gujarati, Hindi, and Telgu.

"Epic offers about 1,500 themes and applications available free of cost. The browser supports about 12 Indian languages like Gujarati, Hindi, Telgu, Kannada, Malayalam and Tamil and does not require the user to download any separate fonts," Bhardwaj said.

The browser, which is free to download, comes with about 20 pre-installed communication applications like Facebook, Twitter, productivity applications such as 'Write' (word processor which supports typing in Indian languages) and entertainment. Epic has seen 4 lakh downloads across the world since its launch in July this year.

In competition with the likes of Microsoft's Internet Explorer and Google's Chrome web browsers, Epic has a host of applications and features that have been designed keeping in mind the Indian users.

"The browser is the most important piece of software on a computer and its usage is growing. It is time we moved Indian languages online and made it easy for 95 per cent of Indians who aren't online to communicate in Indian languages on the Internet," Hidden Reflex CEO Alok Bhardwaj said.

Epic browser, based on open-source Mozilla Firefox platform, has been developed by a team of Indian engineers.

The company also plans to launch a mobile browser. "A large number of people are now accessing the Internet on the web and as the next step, we are working on introducing a mobile browser for the Indian audiences as well," he said.