San Francisco, Nov 1 (IANS): Free-software community Mozilla on Tuesday announced the launch of its global "Equal Rating Innovation Challenge", inviting entrepreneurs, designers, researchers and innovators to propose creative and scalable ideas for connecting more people to the Internet.

The contest will support promising solutions through expert mentorship and $250,000 in prize money, split into three categories -- Best Overall (based on scalability), Best Overall Runner-up and Most Novel Solution (based on experiment with a potential high reward).

"This challenge is designed to spur innovations for bringing the members of the next billion online," said Katharina Borchert, Chief Innovation Officer, Mozilla, in a statement. 

According to the data from a 2014 McKinsey report, India comes under the "Medium-High" category of regions facing barriers for Internet adoption. 

Broadly, the challenges are due to lack of incentives and infrastructure as well as mixed demographics. 

"Connecting the unconnected is one of the greatest challenges of our time," Borchert added. 

Mozilla has launched www.equalrating.com, a website offering educational content and background information to support the challenge. 

In the coming weeks, Mozilla will also stream a series of webinars to further inform potential applicants about the challenge details.

Interested innovators can submit their ideas and contact equalrating@mozilla.com for further details, the company said.