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T W E N T Y
F I V E
I
n India, computers have always been
identified with English-literate users. This perception is easily built due to the lack of
availability of any Hindi or regional language software on computers. Although for
many years, software has been available in Chinese, Arabic, Russian and Japanese,
not much importance has been given until recently, to the development of software in
Indian languages.
The good news is that in the last one year, due to the concentrated efforts of the
government and industry bodies like NASSCOM, many international software
companies have started working on this task seriously and started translating their
software into Hindi and other regional languages.
It is very heartening to know that in the 50th year of India’s independence,
Mahatma Gandhi’s vision of grassroot level development may get a fresh impetus
through computers. The decision of top software companies in the world-IBM,
Microsoft and Apple
—
to release computer software programs in Hindi and other
regional languages is bound to herald an increase in the use of computers in India.
Very soon, the lack of knowledge of English should no longer be a barrier to computer
literacy.
According to national statistics, only five percent of people in India can
speak English. On the contrary, only one person in every 750 Indians works with
a PC. The government has plans to increase the number of people who own or use
a PC to nearly 10 Indians in 1,000 by the year 2000. Such an increase in PC
penetration cannot be achieved without introducing Hindi and other regional
language software in India.
APPLE FOR DEVANAGARI
Early in 1997, US-based Apple Computers introduced the India language Kit
with the capability of providing scripts in Devanagari, Gujarati and Gurumukhi.
The introduction of the Devanagari script in Indian language software facilitated
the use of Sanskrit, Hindi, Marathi and Nepali on computers, whereas
the introduction of the Gujarati and Gurumukhi scripts facilitated the use of
Gujarati and Punjabi, respectively.
The Indian Express December 25, 1997
Computing Goes Vernacular
