New Delhi, September 08, 2009: Union Minister for Communications and Information Technology Thiru A Raja released a set of software tools and fonts for Manipuri and other five Indian languages namely Bangla , Konkani, Kashmiri, Sindhi and Santali for free public distribution at a solemn function held at Indian Habitat Centre, Lodhi Road here today.

The function was jointly organized by the Technology Development for Indian Languages (TDIL) programme of Department of Information Technology (DIT) and Centre for development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC), an autonomous Society under DIT.

Union Minister for Communications and Information Technology A Raja said, "Development of IT tools for Indian Official Languages will go a long way in safeguarding the rich cultural heritage and in enriching the future growth of nation by making larger population of the country participate in the economic development of the society." Underlining the importance of language technologies, the minister said, language diversity is essential to human heritage as every language embodies unique cultural wisdom of people.

The loss of any language in fact is a loss for humanity, he added.

The six languages for which the CDs were presented today to their representatives in Sahitya Academy by Shri R.Chandra Shekhar, the Secretary DIT are Bangla, Konkani, Kashmiri, Manipuri, Santhali and Sindhi.

Shri Laipubam Upendro Sharma, Member, Advisory Board for Manipuri of Sahitya Akademi received the Manipuri CDs from the Secretary DIT.

The Ministry of Communications and Information Technology had already released CDs of the software tools and fonts of sixteen other Indian languages namely Tamil, Hindi, Telugu, Assamese, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Oriya, Punjabi, Urdu, Gujarati, Sanskrit, Bodo, Dogri, Maithili and Nepali.

Manipuri software tools contained both Meitei Mayek (Meitei Script) and Bangla script.

Rajan T Joseph, Director General, C-DAC said that making IT available in local languages was imperative to ensure that benefit of this revolution reached the common man.

Anticipating widespread adoption of applications through desk-top, laptops and internet, he hoped, that this unique programme will offer enormous social and transformational impact on the daily lives of the common man.

Under TDIL programme, DIT is working towards developing local language technology so as not only to bridge the digital divide but also to overcome the English barrier.

The National Roll Out initiative is a first step in this direction.

With release of IT Tools and Fonts for all the 22 Indian Official Languages, the first phase of the National Roll Out initiative is over.

The total number of downloaded and shipped CDs in sixteen languages is approximately 48 lakhs so far.

Tens of thousands of these CDs are also being shipped to NRIs, which shows the capabilities and usefulness of the tools provided.

It is expected to boost interest penetrating Indian languages, catalyze and complement the growth of e-Governance.

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