Tamil transliteration tool using GTK+ toolkit for GNOME environment.

——— Forwarded message ———-
From: Muthiah Annamalai <muthus_post@ yahoo.com>
Date: Jan 7, 2007 10:33 AM

Hello all,
I have written a tamil transliteration tool using GTK+ toolkit for
GNOME environment.

Description: Tamizh Karuvi is an English to Tamil transliteration
tool. It can be used to provide Unicode UTF-8 input to programs within
GNOME/GTK+ environments. The software provides a nice GUI and a command
line program. The encoding table used is from the standard JaffnaLibrary

It can be found here:

http://freshmeat. net/projects/ tamilkaruvi/ ?branch_id= 67898&release_ id=244463

Thanks
Muthiah

Localization as a movement in India

by Rajesh Ranjan

A few days back, a famous writer from Kannada, India, U R Anantmurthy, mentioned in an interview that languages are the repositories of culture. The importance of enabling this culture of languages to not merely survive but flourish in this digital age cannot be understated. If a language is not becoming part of digital advancement then the language will become outdated and endangered and in some cases might even become a thing of the past. End of a language means end of a culture. Thanks to the free software ideology and contemporary open source development methods that have given a new lease on life to many different languages, no matter how small we are, we now have the potential to fix this fundamental issue. Free and open source software, unlike other bureaucratic processes, enable each individual, including you, to contribute toward enabling local language computing and thereby expediting the process of adoption of technologies enabled by computers in rural India. We all can cherish Mahatma Gandhi's quote "Whatever you do will be insignificant but it's very important that you do it." That is why the free software movement enabled by collaborative peers in the community is of paramount importance here. It is a fact that proprietary groups cannot afford to fulfill the needs of the masses, especially in an economy with limited purchasing power, but we in the community of open source computing can rise to the occasion.

In India, so many groups are working to have their languages enabled on computers. "Localizing free software for a free country" is the slogan of IndLinux, a major and popular group having enormous success with this work. IndLinux is a group of people who believe, not so surprisingly, that the benefits of information technology must be widely and freely available to the Indian masses. They are a group of people who combine skills in written scripts, free/open source technologies, and technology journalism to make this happen.

This organization has inspired so many new groups to come forward to work together. Punlinux is one of the most successful examples. Within two years, this group has localized an enormous amount of content in Punjabi, a vibrant language and culture of India. Everything from Fedora® to GNOME to KDE to OpenOffice and all! A great success story from an organization based in rural India! None of the Punlinux members has any urban base! Mix of love for language and open source has produced unbelievable results like this one example.

There are several other efforts being made to Indianize Linux®. One major effort, Ankur, is a collaborative initiative aimed at bringing Bangla to the FLOSS (Free Libre Open Source Software) desktop. The core objective of Ankur is to make available a completely localized GNU/Linux OS and they have received notable success in this field.

Open source contribution of Utkarsh in giving the power of computers to the Gujarati speaking populace is also immense. It is one of the most professionally managed organizations. IndianOSS is another one committed to the cause of Gujarati computing.

Tamil has several active communities. http://sourceforge.net/projects/zha is one of the major efforts. TAMIL-LINux is another group involved in the development of Tamil on Linux/Unix. The BharateeyaOO project is an initiative to bring OpenOffice to India in Indian languages by the ICT Research and Training Centre (India). It is being done as part of the activities of the Development Gateway Foundation. Project Malayalam for the Malayalam Package offers a set of macros and fonts for typesetting Malayalam, which is the primary language of an estimated 33 million people in the South Indian state of Kerala. The Linux in Oriya project is the initiative for making Linux available in Oriya. The GNU/Linux Telugu Localization Effort aims at localizing most common applications on GNU/Linux to Telugu including GNOME, KDE, Mozilla, and OpenOffice. Swathantra Malayalam Computing at present is focusing on translating/localizing GNU/Linux GUI into Malayalam. Swathantra Malayalam fonts is a sub-project of Swathantra Malayalam Computing. Their aim is to make enough free (Swathantra) Malayalam fonts. Indic Trans also works in the field of Linux localization in Indian languages. The Indic-Computing Project is providing technical documentation for Indian language computing issues.

There are several more names: Kannada Localization Initiative works for Kannada language and Thamiz Linux is yet another effort from the Tamil language. Free software localization in Assamese works for Assamese, MarathiOpenSource works for Marathi language, Swecha is a GNU/Linux Telugu localization effort for Telugu language, and http://thamizha.com encompasses multiple projects such as localization of Firefox and OpenOffice among others. A project has even started for minority languages like Maithili, which is spoken in a particular part of a state of India and was incorporated in the schedule of the constitution of India in recent years. It is a fact that in some projects, the pace of work may not be as rapid, but the above examples show there is great awareness and response towards transparent and collaborative open source localization and its methodology.

If the subcontinent of India could be described in a single keyword, diversity would be it. There are about 500 languages in India in which 22 of them are considered official. It's easy enough to imagine the situation merely by knowing that in a small country like Nepal there are more than 50 languages. Sooner or later these smaller languages can hope to go hand in hand with information technology but only through the free software philosophy. The localization movement in the neighboring countries of India has also started. The language of the mountains of Gorkhali, a.k.a. Nepali, has only 1.6 million speakers. A group working with Madan Puraskar Pustakalay has shown a significant momentum in the field of localization in Nepali language last year. This group has completely localized the Gnome desktop. Dzongkha, sometimes called Bhutanese, is the national language of the Kingdom of Bhutan. The goal of Dzongkha Localization Project is to incorporate Dzongkha script into Linux to enable computing in Dzongkha to provide the benefit of information and communication technology to the Bhutanese masses. This project is implemented by the Royal Government of Bhutan and is being funded by International Development Research Center (IDRC), Canada, through its Pan Asia Networking (PAN).

The Sinhala Linux Project is another project to localize Linux in Sinhala. This was started by Lanka Linux User Group (LKLUG). The PAN Localization Project has a broader reach. It is a regional initiative to develop local language capacity in Asia. This organization is working for the following languages: Bangla, Dzongkha, Khmer, Lao, Nepali, Pashto, Sinhala, and Urdu. Generally, dominant languages suppress minority languages. But in the case of Punjabi in Pakistan it is different. In Pakistan, Punjabi is spoken by the majority but the government there does not seem to support this language. So Punlinux has planned to start the localization of Punjabi in Shamukhi script and already filed an enhancement request to create a separate locale for it. This can only be possible in the world of open source! Just like a democracy where every person is equal, in the eyes of open source, every language can be made equal in computing!

Localization of open source software is a transparent and community-driven process. That is why it is easier to customize the software according to local needs. Sometimes, due to cultural differences, people may not be comfortable with western user interfaces. But the difficulty does not stop there. Imagine the struggle of the typical rural Indian to understand metaphors like folders and recycle bins! You might as well as speak Greek, no offense to the friendly folks from Greece. It is particularly true in the case of a major language like Hindi and languages like Bengali and Punjabi that are spoken in two different countries that the whole language is basically split into different zones in two neighboring countries. Hindi is spoken and understood by more than half of the Indian population and has innumerable dialects. In the open source environment, it is easier to modify things according to specific needs irrespective of the profit-loss theory so very typical of the proprietary world. The open source model is not only helping to achieve the local need but also maintains respect for the local emotions. For example, Bengali is now divided into two separate locale (bn_BD and bn_IN) in Fedora and Mozilla after the demand from the community. Basically, localization in open source alone has the power to represent futuristic language computing.

The contribution of Red Hat making the localization effort successful and lively is enormous. By selecting five Indian languages (Hindi, Bengali, Tamil, Punjabi and Gujarati), Red Hat has given great impetus to l10n and i18n works related to Indian needs. Working on a computer with local languages was never so easy. Red Hat launched Red Hat Enterprise Linux and Fedora in those five Indian languages and localized them at not only the application level but at the operating system level also. Red Hat is going to launch similar efforts in eight more languages: Assamese (as), Kannada (kn), Malayalam (ml), Marathi (mr), Oriya (or), Sinhala (si), Telugu (te), and Urdu (ur). This is enough to demonstrate Red Hat's compassion and commitment to India and its local language computing industry.

The President of India, Abdul Kalam once said, "In India, open source code software will have to come and stay in a big way for the benefit of our billion people." In a poor country like India where per capita income is much lower than the average, words of our president and visionary Mr. Kalam should be an important bottom line. These localized computers will be very useful in the field of rural computing. The people of real India only speak their native languages. For them, English represents the language and culture of British domination and exploitations. In analyzing why radio and television has a deep-rooted impact in India, especially in the rural areas, we can understand that the main reason is the availability of television programs produced in local languages. The localization movement in India has made 'alien' computer 'desi' one–hamara computer, tumhara computer. The Local Language IT market is in a development stage and it is rising with exponential growth. E-governance is one major field where localization of software is a must. The cost of hardware is going down very fast and in this context, the future of localized open source software is great.

Last year the government started a program to launch localized CDs in all 22 official languages. Hindi, Tamil, and Telugu language CDs have already launched. Many of the applications available on the CD were released under the GNU General Public License (GPL). This is a success story of the localization movement in India. The initiative has been funded by the Indian government. It has planned to distribute 3.5 million copies of the Hindi Language CDs after the popularity. IndiX is a project funded by TDIL working on Indian language support for Linux. CDAC, a government organization, has also done important work for supporting open source software localization.

There are many people and several organizations in India that support the open source ideology. A strikingly unique example of this is the establishment of Mahatma Gandhi Antarrashtriya Hindi Vishwavidyalaya (Mahatma Gandhi International Hindi University) in 1997. An eminent Hindi poet and former Secretary in the Ministry of Culture of India, Mr. Ashok Vajpeyi was the first vice chancellor of the university and he made the decision to run the university completely on open source. During his tenure, two books (in Hindi) and a bilingual magazine (in Hindi and English) were published completely on open source technology. Having open source computer based technology which works in a native language, particularly in Hindi, was the main target of the university. (On the website it is still the same!!) It is unfortunate that the situation hasn't been so positive after the completion of his term!

The Delhi-based non-profit organization Sarai is fully committed to the use, propagation, and development of free software. Sarai has played a key role in the localization of some of the Indian languages. According to Sarai, free software emerged as a democratic alternative to proprietary control over code. Sarai has encouraged so many people to engage and enlarge this domain by giving fellowships and having several workshops.

The work of localization started long before and now it has taken the form of movement. Internet availability, lack of resources, and illiteracy are some hindrances in the path of local language computing. The major hurdle is the mentality of the English speaking elite who sneer at the local language computing efforts. The elite have not had any grass-root experience, but they are still controlling the major positions within administration and finance. But ultimately they have to stumble down against the force of the local language computing market. Two decades ago, the condition of the television industry was similar to the present computer industry in India. Positive changes are inevitable and also not very far off in the field of computers.

Poet Mr. Ashok Vajpeyi once wrote that the Indian tradition of selfless distribution of knowledge is very old and universal. We can say that the free software movement is the western version of the old Indian tradition. Mr. Vajpeyi's statement is very right and so, in the long term, Indian soil will prove itself very fertile for open source software. "Where knowledge is free" was the dream of Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore for his nation and now the time is moving ahead toward his dreamland

About the author

Rajesh Ranjan is Language Maintainer, Hindi at Red Hat. He is working with several localization projects including Fedora, GNOME, Openoffice.org, and Mozilla. He is the Indic Language Co-ordinator for the Native Language Confederation of Openoffice.org. Before joining Red Hat, he worked with The Indian Express Group and Literate World, Inc.

eGovernance through Regional Languages

eGovernance through Regional Languages

http://www.cdac.in/html/egov/article.asp

With increasing recognition of information technology in catalyzing economic activity and efficient governance, countries have benefited through eGovernance. In India, application of Indian languages on computers has driven eGovernance initiatives. C-DAC has applied language technologies successfully to a number of eGovernance solutions to deliver efficient Government Services in a transparent manner. Practically all world economies have recognized importance of information technology in catalyzing economic activity, in efficient governance and in human resource development. They have, therefore, made significant investments and successfully integrated it with the development process in reaping the benefits of the information technology revolution that is taking place globally, to their society. In India, likewise, these developments have impacted the Industrial, Education, Service and Government sectors, and their influence on various applications is increasingly being felt of late. As the era of digital economy is evolving, a significant impact of these developments has been felt in eGovernance. The questions often asked in the context are: How government can become more responsive and accessible? How can the government enhance its role as a catalyst of economic growth? How can one provide better Government services? and How can the Government use advanced technologies for transferring benefits to the society in terms of improving health care, education, administrative and citizen interface services? eGovernance consequently has emerged as a technologically driven methodology to realize economic prosperity leading to transparency, providing information speedily to all citizens, improving administrative efficiency, improving public services, higher velocity of business, improved productivity and an exciting business opportunity. In a large, geographically dispersed, demographic multilingual country India, the common thread in implementing and achieving these basic objectives of eGovernance has been the development and adoption of language computing tools and methodologies. The Government officials in various provinces, the non-government functionaries across the country and the people, mostly use their own language in day-to-day work, be it in Government administration at various levels, in business, in profession, in services or in school education. Thus, if the fruits of information technology revolution have to spread to all these participating members, in Government and public, it is best done through the use of computers in their own languages. Out of a billion population, there are only 5% people in India who know or speak English, with balance 95% (950 million) people speaking or practicing in at least 18 different officially recognized languages. This poses both a challenge and an opportunity. The Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) has made pioneering contributions in developing Indian language tools with natural language processing, and in evolving script and font standards through its GIST technology, to enable and spread use of computers in various languages. It accordingly took up the initiative of developing important eGovernance solutions in Indian languages, which impact Government and the citizens both. This initiative started in 1997 and has grown to a significant extent by the end of 2001. Significant parameters of this initiative were: Improve government's own functioning Provide better service to citizens in a transparent manner Reduce hassles, corruption and drudgery in various government bodies – public interactive functions   Significant information technology based applications developed and successfully commissioned under this initiative are: Public Works Department (Maharashtra State) – Covered Works, Accounts, Employees and Tender management modules networking the various 250 state offices to lead to an improved, transparent and efficient system of works services. Involved an outlay of Rs. 10.5 crores (U.S. $ 2.0 Million) to address Works Services of an average Rs. 2500 crore (US$ 500 Million) of the PWD – Maharashtra. This is now proposed for other States also. Stamp Registration (Maharashtra and U.P. States) – Provided on-line property registration, valuation and report generation across 366 offices at various state administrative units, reducing time from several days to mere 20 minutes for an individual, and increasing number of registered documents from 16 to 40 per day with 10 – 15% revenue increase. Involved an outlay of Rs. 5.5 crores (US$ 1 Million) to address a Statewide annual revenue of Rs. 2000 crores (US$ 400 Million). Municipal Corporations (Karnataka) – Computerized major functions of property tax valuation/collection, issue and record of death/birth certificates, water supply billing, consumer complaints and internal MIS functions providing improved citizen services. Involved an outlay of Rs. 2.5 crores (US$ 0.5 Million) in the first phase of six Corporations to address a budget of Rs. 2000 crores (US$ 400 Million). Octroi collection (Nashik – Maharashtra) – Dispensed with cash collection at remote check posts, providing instant valuation, receipt and reconciliation of accounts in a transparent manner. Total outlay Rs. 60 lakhs (US$ 0.1 Million). Decision Support System (Andhra Pradesh State) – Implemented a data warehouse of land and person data of 60 million population to enable well informed, timely and accurate policy decisions by the Government officials across various departments. Involved an outlay of Rs. 5 crores (US$ 1 Million) to address the total State data. Hospital Management System (Specialty and Government Hospitals) – Implemented to improve Healthcare services for the patients. Involved an outlay of Rs. 1.5 crore (US$ 0.3 Million) over two hospitals of 500 beds and 1500 beds respectively. GIS based Land Management (Industrial Development Corporations) – Implemented at a cost of Rs. 55 lakhs (US$ 0.11 Million) to provide web-based access to land data covering allotment, transfer, mortgage, surrender, etc. of industrial development units, in the particular case for MIDC, Maharashtra. Archives Computerization – This application enables effective scanning and archival of various types of old documents with proper enhancement, indexing and retrieval facilities. This application has been successfully deployed for Department of Archives, Govt. of Maharashtra. All these applications have been very effective in the achievement of their objective, have involved significant technology component covering web, data warehousing, database architecture, Geomatics, Scan/Archive, advanced software tools, and applied in a most innovative manner, ensured replicability to other organizations by building a licensable software product. These also enabled, through business process re-engineering, an effective organizational change to ease their functions and offer a more productive service to the intended beneficiaries. Their relevance has been equally brought about by providing language technology component of significance to the target user group(s), which have broken any language barriers by enabling users to interact with computers in their own languages. C-DAC groups were organized activity-wise to implement various development projects that were commissioned during the period 1997-2001. The groups comprised of approximately 100 software professionals who worked over an approximate budget of Rs. 30 crores (US$ 6 million) to address the direct business of over Rs. 6500 crores (US$ 1.3 Billion) of the State Governments annually. This initiate is now being spread to other parts of the country to similarly provide effective solutions and services. C-DAC is an institution of a 575 regular plus 175 contract staff of high skills in advanced information technologies, training and business activities. It is an autonomous scientific institution of the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, Govt. of India. It currently operates on an annual budget of Rs. 100 crores (US$ 20 million) and works with a network of 100 plus partner institutions in the private enterprise for providing training and support services countrywide. Set up over a decade ago, as India's national initiative for design, development and delivery of high performance computing (supercomputer systems) and solutions based on parallel processing technology, C-DAC has over the years diversified its activities, transferring the expertise it acquired and technologies it developed in the high-end computing to develop and deploy Information Technology (IT) based solutions in various sectors of economy. Through this approach, it has maintained a balance between developing strategic technologies needed in the country in the high performance computing area for achieving self-reliance, and addressing mission critical problems in the science and engineering fields on one hand, and using expertise developed to commercialize its technologies and products to meet the requirements in various sectors of economy on the other.

eGovernance of INDIA and Effective Implementation of RTI Act 2005 needs Localization of INDIAN Languages

—————–
Forwarded Message:

Subj: Localization of Languages in INDIA – RCILTS – TDIL – eGovernance of INDIA and Effective Implementation of RTI Act 2005 needs Localization of INDIAN Languages

Date:	Tue, 20 Jun 2006 07:07:48 -0700 (PDT)
From:	"eGov INDIA" <egovindia@yahoo.com>
Subject:	Localization of Languages in INDIA – RCILTS – TDIL – eGovernance of INDIA and Effective Implementation of RTI Act 2005 needs Localization of INDIAN Languages
To:	secretary@mit.gov.in, jsegov@mit.gov.in, omvikas@mit.gov.in, sakumar@mit.gov.in, pchopra@mit.gov.in, slata@mit.gov.in, vkumar@mit.gov.in, mjain@mit.gov.in, schandra@mit.gov.in, pmosb@pmo.nic.in, soniagandhi@sansad.nic.in, 10janpath@vsnl.net, mocit@nic.in, shakeel.ahmad@sansad.nic.in
CC:	minister@mit.gov.in, mos@mit.gov.in, "VM K" <vmkumaraswamy@yahoo.com>, rgilani@mit.gov.in, phadke@mit.gov.in, ksdir@hub.nic.in, mohan@tn.nic.in, lalitha@hub.nic.in, pspillai@hub.nic.in, kashinath@hub.nic.in, srinath@mit.gov.in, gb@iitg.ernet.in, bbc@isical.ac.in, sityash@satyam.net.in, rciltg@satyam.net.in, gslehal@mailcity.com, rmk@iitk.ac.in, njrao@mgmt.iisc.ernet.in, chairman@mgmt.iisc.ernet.in, ravi@erdcitvm.org, pb@cse.iitb.ernet.in, sangham1@rediffmail.com, gvs@jnuiv.ernet.in, gvs10@hotmail.com, rp@annauniv.edu, knmcs@uohyd.ernet.in, mdk@cdac.ernet.in

Date:

6/20/2006 7:08:11 A.M. Pacific Standard Time

Hello TDIL Team and MIT Team of GoI,

We need response from you all. We are asking these questions since 2004, 2005 and 2006.

What is the status of FOURTEEN RCILTS-Resource Centre for Indian Language Technology Solutions FUNDED by TDIL ? Can we get update on this please !! 

[email letter dated May 11, 2005. No response]

https://egovindia.wordpress.com/2006/06/20/what-is-the-status-of-fourteen-rcilts-resource-centre-for-indian-language-technology-solutions-funded-by-tdil-can-we-get-update-on-this-please/

Resource Centre for Indian Language Technology Solution “RCILTS”- Letter to TDIL and MIT dated 09-24-2005

[no response to this letter]

https://egovindia.wordpress.com/2006/06/20/resource-centre-for-indian-language-technology-solution-rcilts-letter-to-tdil-and-mit-dated-09-24-2005/

Request for you and your Ministry to Assist in the RTI Act 2005 TRANSLATED into REGIONAL OFFICIAL LANGAUGES of STATES to uphold the Social Justice and Empowerment of MINORITIES in all States of INDIA. This is MUST for INDIA.

[no reply for this letter]

https://egovindia.wordpress.com/2006/05/28/request-for-you-and-your-ministry-to-assist-in-the-rti-act-2005-translated-into-regional-official-langauges-of-states-to-uphold-the-social-justice-and-empowerment-of-minorities-in-all-states-of-india-/

This is Mr. V. M. Kumaraswamy, MBA.

About eGovINDIA and it's activties

https://egovindia.wordpress.com/

Resource Centre for Indian Language Technology Solution “RCILTS”- Letter to TDIL and MIT dated 09-24-2005

Resource Centre for Indian Language Technology Solution "RCILTS"Are the resource centres established by MIT, Government of India. Each one was funded with about 1.3 CRORES.  These centers are there since about atleast 5 to 10 years.

FOLLOWING EMAIL LETTER is not answered by MIT/DIT/TDIL yet. This email gives all the RCILTS centers established by TDIL/MIT/DIT of Government of INDIA.Subject: What are these RCILTS are doing now ? Can we get some information from each center please / ALSO fro TDIL TEAM/ We had written a letter to TDIL TEAM on May 11th, 2005 //

Date: 9/24/2005 5:53:18 P.M. Pacific Daylight Time

From: vmkumaraswamy@yahoo.com 
To: gb@iitg.ernet.in, bbc@isical.ac.in, sityash@satyam.net.in, rciltg@satyam.net.in, gslehal@mailcity.com, rmk@iitk.ac.in, njrao@mgmt.iisc.ernet.in, chairman@mgmt.iisc.ernet.in, ravi@erdcitvm.org, pb@cse.iitb.ernet.in, sangham1@rediffmail.com, gvs@jnuiv.ernet.in, gvs10@hotmail.com, rp@annauniv.edu, knmcs@uohyd.ernet.in, mdk@cdac.ernet.in
CC: minister@mit.gov.in, mos@mit.gov.in, secretary@mit.gov.in, jsegov@mit.gov.in, omvikas@mit.gov.in, sakumar@mit.gov.in, pchopra@mit.gov.in, slata@mit.gov.in, vkumar@mit.gov.in, mjain@mit.gov.in, schandra@mit.gov.in, vmkumaraswamy@yahoo.com, novamed@aol.com
Sent from the Internet (Details)
 
RCILTS means  Resource Centre for Indian Language Technology Solutions

TDIL has 11 or 12 RCILTS for different Languages

What is the status of  FOURTEEN RCILTS-Resource Centre for Indian Language Technology Solutions FUNDED by TDIL ? Can we get update on this please !!

We have not received any reply from TDIL TEAM at GOI

We have not received any reply from TDIL TEAM for our email dated May 11th, 2005.

Assamese :

Prof. Gautam Barua
Department of computer Science and engineering,
Indian Institute of  Technology ( IIT ) , Guwahati – 781 001(Assam)
Tel – 0361-2690325 Extn. 2029, 2690321 – 28 (O), 2634121 (R)
E-mail – gb@iitg.ernet.in 
Website-www.iitg.ernet.in/rcilts

Bangla  :  

Prof. B.B. Chaudhary,(CI)
Head, Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition Unit,
Indian Statistical Institute ( ISI ), Kolkata.
Tel-033-25778085, 25777694, 25775502, 25571927(R)
Fax-25776680, 25773035
E-mail- bbc@isical.ac.in 

Gujarati :

Prof. Sitansu Y. Mehta,
Department of Gujarati, Faculty of arts,
M.S. Univerdity of Baroda, Baroda-390002
Tel- 0265-2792959
E-mail- sityash@satyam.net.in/rciltg@satyam.net.in

Gurumukhi :  

Prof. G.S. Lehal
Department of Computer Science & Engineering
Thapar Instiute of Engineering Technology
Deemed University, Patiala-147 001
Tel-0175-2393007
E-mail-gslehal@mailcity.com  

Hindi :    

Prof. R.M.K. Sinha
Indian Institute of Technology ( IIT ), Kanpur-208 016
Tel-2598570(R), 2597170(O)
Email-rmk@iitk.ac.in 
website- www.iitk.ac.in

Kannada :

Prof. N.J. Rao
Centre for Electronics Design and Technology(CEDT)
Indian Institute of Science ( IISc ), Bangalore-560 012
Tel-080-23092377(O), 23092378, 23092567
E-mail- njrao@mgmt.iisc.ernet.in /

chairman@mgmt.iisc.ernet.in 

Malayalam:

Shri.Ravindra Kumar
ER&DCI,Vellayambalam
Thiruvanantpuram 695033
Ph.0471-723333 Fax0471-331654
E-mail:ravi@erdcitvm.org
website-www.blonnet.com/2002/04/06/03hdline.htm

Marathi :

Prof. Pushpak Bhattachrya (CI)
Department of Computer Science & Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology ( IIT ), Powai, Mumbai-400 076
Tel-022-25767718 (O), 25768718 / 25721955 (R)
Fax-022-25720290 / 25723480
E-mai- pb@cse.iitb.ernet.in  

Oriya :

Prof. (Ms) Sanghamitra Mohanty
Department of Computer Science & Appplication
Vanivihar, Utkal University, Bhubaneswar- 751004
Tel- 0674-2580216 (O), 2540868 (R)
Fax-0674-2581850
E-mail- sangham1@rediffmail.com
Website: www.rcilts-utkal.org

Sanskrit :

Prof. G.V. Singh
School of Computer and Systems sciences
Jawaharlal Nehru University ( JNU ), New Mehruli road, New Delhi-110 067
Tel-011-26101895 (R) / 26107676
E-mail – gvs@jnuiv.ernet.in  /

gvs10@hotmail.com  

Tamil :  

Dr. T.V. Geetha
Co-Ordinator ( RC-ILTS-Tamil )
Sxchool of Computer Science & Engineering
Anna University, Chennai-600 025
Tel – 044 – 22351723
Fax – 044 – 22350397
E-mail – rp@annauniv.edu
website- www.ns.annauniv.ac.in

Telugu :  

Prof. K. Narayana Murthy
Department of Computer & Information Science
University of Hyderabad, P.O. Central University
Hyderabad – 500 046
Tel – 040-23010500 Extn. 4056(D),
                  23010064(O) , 23010374(R)
Fax – 040-23010120, 23010145
E-mail – knmcs@uohyd.ernet.in

Urdu :  

Shri M.D.Kulkarni
Center for Development of Advanced Computing ( CDAC)
Pune University, Ganesh Khind Road. Pune-411 007
Maharashtra
Tel – 020-25652461 / 79 / 83 / 84
Fax – 91-20-25657551
E-mail – mdk@cdac.ernet.in,

What is the status of FOURTEEN RCILTS-Resource Centre for Indian Language Technology Solutions FUNDED by TDIL ? Can we get update on this please !!

Subject: What is the status of  FOURTEEN RCILTS-Resource Centre for Indian Language Technology Solutions FUNDED by TDIL ? Can we get update on this please !!

Date: 5/11/2005 9:15:34 PM Pacific Daylight Time
From: vmkumaraswamy@yahoo.com
To: secretary@mit.gov.in, jsegov@mit.gov.in, omvikas@mit.gov.in, sakumar@mit.gov.in, pchopra@mit.gov.in, slata@mit.gov.in, vkumar@mit.gov.in, mjain@mit.gov.in, schandra@mit.gov.in
CC: vmkumaraswamy@yahoo.com, novamed@aol.com, minister@mit.gov.in, mos@mit.gov.in
BCC: 
Sent on: 
 

Sent from the Internet (Details) 

Hello TDIL TEAM at DIT

You all must know the progress made by these FOURTEEN RCILTS Centers. You all know that each one of the Centeres got funded to the tune of 1 to 2 Crores. Some might be even more.

Conceived in the millennium year, The Resource Centre for Indian Language Technology Solutions, Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati, is one of fourteen such Centres, spread all over the country,  set up to provide information in various Indian Languages in Electronic form and make them available in native languages aiding the dissemination of information to the larger masses.

Funded by The Ministry of Communications & Information Technology, Government of India, this Centre concentrates on hosting information in Assamese and Manipuri, the official languages of the North-East Indian states of Assam and Manipur.

List of Resources Centres
 
Resource Centre
 Languages Associated With
 
Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur
 Hindi, Nepali
 
Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai
 Marathi, Konkani
 
Indian Institute of Technology, Guwahati
 Assamese, Manipuri
 
Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore
 Kannada, Sanskrit (Cognitive Models)
 
Indian Statistical Institute, Calcutta
 Bengali
 
Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi
 Foreign Languages (Japanese, Chinese) & Sanskrit (Language Learning Systems)
 
University of Hyderabad, Hyderabad
 Telugu
 
Anna University, Chennai
 Tamil
 
MS University, Baroda
 Gujarati
 
Utkal University, Orissa 
 Oriya
 
Thapar Institute of Engg. & Tech., Patiala
 Punjabi
 
ER & DCI, Trivandrum
 Malayalam
 
CDAC, Pune
 Urdu, Sindhi, Kashmiri
___________________________________________________________
 
We would like to find out what are the positive things that are developed by these FOURTEEN centers in different languages that are being used by people of INDIA.
 
Did these centeres solve the problems of Localisation of Languages in INDIA ? What was the General Direction given to these centeres when money was FUNDED to these centeres ?
 
Does the DIT has any signed documents o these FOURTEEN Centeres ? If YES, Can we have a copy of that please.
 
I hope I get reply for my questions about RCILTS.
 
Thanks
Sincerely
 
V. M. Kumaraswamy
___________________________________________________________
With all the above infrmation, WHY still LOCALIZATION of Languages in INDIA are not happenning ?

Request for you and your Ministry to Assist in the RTI Act 2005 TRANSLATED into REGIONAL OFFICIAL LANGAUGES of STATES to uphold the Social Justice and Empowerment of MINORITIES in all States of INDIA. This is MUST for INDIA.

Request for you and your Ministry to Assist in the RTI Act 2005 TRANSLATED into REGIONAL OFFICIAL LANGAUGES of STATES to uphold the Social Justice and Empowerment of MINORITIES in all States of INDIA. This is MUST for INDIA.

eGovINDIA, E KAVI,  India RTI

—————————————————————————————–

Judicial Reforms & India Whistle Blower's Action Group

Facilitating Emergence of New India

Based on Values of Transparency & Accountability, E Governance, Natural Justice, Human Rights and Human Dignity

       ===================================

January 9, 2006

Hon. Minister Smt. Meira Kumar,

Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment Shastri Bhawan,

Dr Rajendra Prasad Road, New Delhi – 110 001 (India)

FAX 91-11-23384918

D-1029, New Friends Colony

New Delhi – 110065 Phone No. 91-11-26910618, 26910639

min-sje@sb.nic.in

Ref: Request for you and your Ministry to Assist in getting the RTI Act 2005 TRANSLATED into REGIONAL OFFICIAL LANGAUGES of STATES to uphold the Social Justice and Empowerment of MINORITIES in all States of INDIA. This is a MUST for INDIA.

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO all of YOU.

This is V. M. Kumaraswamy MBA, in business since 1971. Founder and Moderator of India's largest e-governance yahoo-group under the title eGovINDIA. You can reach this group at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/eGovINDIA

eGovINDIA is a group dedicated to promoting true e-governance in India, consisting of members from all walks of life from within INDIA and the World over. Many State Ministers and senior bureaucrats of India are members of this group. We do have lawyers, social activists, freelance writers and journalists in the group. The group is meant for serious activists only. Casual members are not allowed to join the group. The group is also moderated by an Indian Administrative Service  (IAS) Officer.  As on date, the ! group has nearly 2700 members.

The focus of this group is true e-governance and use of open source technology in e-governance. The members of this forum have a passion to see a truly e-governed India, resulting in transparency and easy access to government services by  the common man, notably the depressed class people (so called untouchables), women and people living in far flung and difficult areas of India.

`Right to Information Act will empower common people'. An inalienable right conferred on citizens. The eGovINDIA and INDIA RTI Consortium  strongly advocate that ALL Governance in INDIA needs NRTI Act 2005 implemented effectively and properly to follow RTIA which means Responsibility, Transparency, Integrity and Accountability.

The RTI legislative intent is clear; People are entitled to know how their money is spent. The onus is on all of us to make the Act work. In effect, therefore, the right conferred on the citizen is an exhaustive one. It allows them to assess and examine every government decision, to study the reasons recorded by the government for taking a particular step, and to utilise information so gathered to ensure that government acts in a transparent and just manner.     Indeed, the preamble to the RTI Act puts it well when it says, "democracy requires an informed citizenry and transparency of information" and adds these "are vital to its functioning and also to contain corruption and to hold Governments and their instrumentalities accountable to the governed".

eGovINDIA's subsidiary groups:

India WhistleBlower Act: The Action Group http://groups.yahoo.com/group/INDIA_WBA Exclusive Discussion Group on! Judicial and Legal Reforms in INDIA. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/JUDICIALREFORMS Right to Information in INDIA discussion group http://groups.yahoo.com/group/INDIARTI

—————-

Localization of Languages which is a MUST for EFFECTIVE Implementation of eGovernance, RTI Act and all other Acts of INDIA.

There are 20 to 22 official languages in INDIA.  All ACTS of INDIA needs to be TRANSLATED into these official Langauges.

Only 5 % in INDIA speak English. Only 20 to 25 % in INDIA knows Hindi. 85 % to 90 % of people speak there own STATE LANGAUGE. We need to CATER to these people. This should happen in INDIA. GOI needs to think about this for it's future. Real RTI Activists who are in the field knows about this problems.

Right to Info Act hits language barrier http://dnaindia.com/report.asp?NewsID=9593

 

Minister Dayanidhi Maran Says Only FIVE percent speak ENGLISH in INDIA. SO 95% of population needs to know RTI rules and regulations in different Languages of INDIA. 

_________________

DARPG Guidelines:

E-mail is an efficient and timely communication tool used to carry out departmental activities and to conduct business within the Government of India, with business partners and with citizens. E-mail has become an important component of any office automation system. It expedites exchange of information, speeds up the decision making process and reduces paperwork, resulting in increased productivity, reduced costs and better delivery of services and programme's.

http://darpg.nic.in/Content/Guidelines-emailDec04.doc

__________________________________________

Right to information and obligations of public authorities 3     Subject to the provisions of this Act, all citizens shall have the right to information. 4 (1)   Every public authority shall—     (a) maintain all its records duly catalogued and indexed in a manner and the form which facilitates the right to information under this Act and ensure that all records that are appropriate to be computerized are, within a reasonable time and subject to availability of resources, computerized and connected through a network all over the country on different systems so that access to such records is facilitated;

___________

 

As per PRESIDENTIAL ORDER of 1960, 

11.Language of Acts, Bills, etc. –

(a) The Committee has expressed the opinion that Parliamentary legislation may continue to be in English but an authorised translation should be provided in Hindi. The Ministry of Law may, in due course, initiate necessary legislation to provide for an authorised Hindi translation of Parliamentary legislation which may continue to be in English. Arrangements may be made by the Ministry of Law also for providing translations of Parliamentary legislation into the regional languages.

(b) The Committee has expressed the opinion that where the original text of Bills introduced in or Acts passed by the State legislature is in language other than Hindi, a Hindi translation may be published with it besides an English translation as provided in clause (3) of article 348.

In due course, legislation may be initiated for the publication of a Hindi translation of State Bills, Acts, and other statutory instruments, along with the text in the official language of the State.

As per THE OFFICIAL LANGUAGE RESOLUTION, 1968.

The following Government Resolution, as adopted by both Houses of Parliament, is hereby published for general information:-

RESOLUTION

“WHEREAS  under article 343 of the Constitution, Hindi shall be the official language of the Union, and under article 351 thereof it is the duty of the Union to promote the spread of the Hindi Language and to develop it so that it may serve as a medium of __expression for all the elements of the composite culture of India;

This House resolves that a more intensive and comprehensive programme shall be prepared and implemented by the Government of India for accelerating the spread and development of Hindi and its progressive use for the various official purposes of the Union and an annual assessment report giving details of the measures taken and the progress achieved shall be laid on the Table of both Houses of Parliament and sent to all State Governments;

2. WHEREAS  the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution  specifies 14 major languages of India besides Hindi, and  it is necessary in the  interest of the educational and cultural advancement of the country that concerted measures should be taken for the full development of these languages;

 

The House resolves that a programme shall be prepared and implemented by the Government of India, in collaboration with the State Governments for the coordinated development of all these languages, alongside Hindi so that they grow rapidly in richness and become effective means of communicating modern knowledge;

3.  WHEREAS it is necessary for promoting the sense of unity and facilitating communication between people  in different parts of the country that effective steps should be taken for implementing fully in all States  the three-language formula evolved by the Government of India in consultation with the State Government;

This House resolves that arrangements should be made in accordance with that formula for the study of a modern Indian language, preferably one of the Southern languages, apart from Hindi and English in the Hindi speaking areas and of Hindi along with the regional languages and English in the non-Hindi speaking areas;

 _____________

We all sincerely request you to get involved in this through your Ministry and help all of us to get this achieved for the benefit of upholding the Social Justice and Empowerment of Minorities in INDIA. I hope you will help us in this. We further request you to help in writing a letter to respective Ministeries to get this done. If you need any additonal information, we will be able to provide you. Expecting early reply from all of you. Thanks Sincerely V. M. Kumaraswamy, MBA. Founder and Moderator INDIA RTI and eGovINDIA. CONTACT:

Rajshekhar Bhujanga

93412-69913

[The Convener of E KAVI Human Rights Committee; Former HR Head in Several Corporations; Worked in different types of economy/Service like Central Government Public Sector, Private Sector Multinational, NGO and Military]

KANNADA – Localization of Languages, As per PRESIDENTIAL ORDER of 1960 and As per THE OFFICIAL LANGUAGE RESOLUTION, 1968.

eGovINDIA, E KAVI,  India RTI

—————————————————————————————–

Judicial Reforms & India Whistle Blower's Action Group

Facilitating Emergence of New India

Based on Values of Transparency & Accountability, E Governance,
Natural Justice, Human Rights and Human Dignity

       ===================================

January 10th 2006

Dear Mr. K. K. Misra and Mr. K. A. Thippeswamy
SCIC and SIC of GOK,
KIC

Ref: Localization of Languages and what procedures are taken by KIC As per PRESIDENTIAL ORDER of 1960 and As per THE OFFICIAL LANGUAGE RESOLUTION, 1968 By Both Houses of Parliment.

Localization of Languages which is a MUST for EFFECTIVE Implementation of eGovernance, RTI Act and all other Acts of INDIA.

There are 20 to 22 official languages in INDIA.  All ACTS of INDIA needs to be TRANSLATED into these official Langauges.

Only 5 % in INDIA speak English. Only 20 to 25 % in INDIA knows Hindi.

85 % to 90 % of people speak there own STATE LANGAUGE. We need to CATER to these people. This should happen in INDIA. GOI needs to think about this for it's future. Real RTI Activists who are in the field knows about this problems.

Right to Info Act hits language barrier

http://dnaindia.com/report.asp?NewsID=9593

 

Minister Dayanidhi Maran Says Only FIVE percent speak ENGLISH in INDIA. SO 95% of population needs to know RTI rules and regulations in different Languages of INDIA. 

_________________

 As per PRESIDENTIAL ORDER of 1960, 

11.Language of Acts, Bills, etc. –

(a) The Committee has expressed the opinion that Parliamentary legislation may continue to be in English but an authorised translation should be provided in Hindi. The Ministry of Law may, in due course, initiate necessary legislation to provide for an authorised Hindi translation of Parliamentary legislation which may continue to be in English. Arrangements may be made by the Ministry of Law also for providing translations of Parliamentary legislation into the regional languages.

(b) The Committee has expressed the opinion that where the original text of Bills introduced in or Acts passed by the State legislature is in language other than Hindi, a Hindi translation may be published with it besides an English translation as provided in clause (3) of article 348.

In due course, legislation may be initiated for the publication of a Hindi translation of State Bills, Acts, and other statutory instruments, along with the text in the official language of the State.

As per THE OFFICIAL LANGUAGE RESOLUTION, 1968.

The following Government Resolution, as adopted by both Houses of Parliament, is hereby published for general information:-

RESOLUTION

“WHEREAS  under article 343 of the Constitution, Hindi shall be the official language of the Union, and under article 351 thereof it is the duty of the Union to promote the spread of the Hindi Language and to develop it so that it may serve as a medium of __expression for all the elements of the composite culture of India;

This House resolves that a more intensive and comprehensive programme shall be prepared and implemented by the Government of India for accelerating the spread and development of Hindi and its progressive use for the various official purposes of the Union and an annual assessment report giving details of the measures taken and the progress achieved shall be laid on the Table of both Houses of Parliament and sent to all State Governments;

2. WHEREAS  the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution  specifies 14 major languages of India besides Hindi, and  it is necessary in the  interest of the educational and cultural advancement of the country that concerted measures should be taken for the full development of these languages;

The House resolves that a programme shall be prepared and implemented by the Government of India, in collaboration with the State Governments for the coordinated development of all these languages, alongside Hindi so that they grow rapidly in richness and become effective means of communicating modern knowledge;

3.  WHEREAS it is necessary for promoting the sense of unity and facilitating communication between people  in different parts of the country that effective steps should be taken for implementing fully in all States  the three-language formula evolved by the Government of India in consultation with the State Government;

This House resolves that arrangements should be made in accordance with that formula for the study of a modern Indian language, preferably one of the Southern languages, apart from Hindi and English in the Hindi speaking areas and of Hindi along with the regional languages and English in the non-Hindi speaking areas;

_____________

WHAT is the STATUS of KANNADA LANGAUGE in KARNATAKA STATE ?

We all sincerely request both of you to get involved in this through KIC and help all of us to get this achieved for the benefit of people of Karnataka State.

We further request both of you to help in writing a letter to respective Ministeries and Departments to get this done.

If you need any additional information, we will be able to provide you.

Thanks

Sincerely

V. M. Kumaraswamy, MBA.

Founder and Moderator

INDIA RTI and eGovINDIA.

CONTACT:

Rajshekhar Bhujanga

93412-69913

[The Convener of E KAVI Human Rights Committee; Former HR Head in Several Corporations; Worked in different types of economy/Service like Central Government Public Sector, Private Sector Multinational, NGO and Military]

Localization of Languages is a MUST for EFFECTIVE Implementation of eGovernance, RTI Act and all other Acts of INDIA.

Localization of Languages is a MUST for EFFECTIVE Implementation of eGovernance, RTI Act and all other Acts of INDIA.

Main objective of use of Information and Communication Technology in e-Government activities is to bring the information and services more effectively to the citizens with the final objective of improving their standard of living. In order to provide information that could be useful to the citizens, information should be provided in languages that could be best understood by them. Therefore use of local languages in all the e-Government projects is fundamental for those projects to be successful.

How many OFFICIAL Languages we have in INDIA ?

There are 18 to 20 official language. For effective implementation of eGovernance of INDIA,  RTI Act 2005 and other Acts, INDIA need to promote LOCALIZATION of LANGUAGES if it wants to be properly implemented in INDIA.

 

Only 5 % in INDIA speak English. Only 30 to 40 % in INDIA knows Hindi.

85 % to 90 % of people speak there own STATE LANGAUGE. We need to CATER to these people. This should happen in INDIA. GOI needs to think about this for it'sfuture. Real RTI Actvists who are in the field knows about this probelms.

 

 

Right to Info Act hits language barrier

http://dnaindia.com/report.asp?NewsID=9593

 

Minister Dayanidhi Maran Says Only FIVE percent speak ENGLISH in INDIA. SO 95% of population needs to know RTI rules and regulations in different Languages of INDIA.

'Connectivity, computers, content rule broadband'

PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

Posted online: Thursday, November 10, 2005 at 1837 hours IST
http://www.financialexpress.com/latest_full_story.php?content_id=108240

"If we are to boost the broadband penetration in the country we need content in English as well as in all other regional languages. After all only five per cent people speak English," Dayanidhi Maran said.

According to Information Technology Secretary Brijesh Kumar, “In order to push PC penetration beyond the urbane limits, there is a strong need to make the applications and content available to users in their native language. From December, users will have an option to use the computer not just in English but also in Hindi, Tamil and Telugu, especially since the software will come free of cost.”

http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/181_1546385,0002.htm

According to Kumar, the key drivers that will drive exponential growth for this market will be the newer areas of application for local language IT, broad based e-governance initiatives that will employ local language as a front end to disseminate government services to citizens. “Bundling of multi-lingual software with PCs and other access devices will prove to be a catalyst in promoting PC usage in the country as it did in countries like China,” he added.

Zenith Computers CEO Raj Saraf, “Given that only three per cent of the Indian population can speak in English while close to 40 per cent of the Indian population speaks Hindi or one of its variants, language tools are the only way sales can break the present saturation point.”