[lg policy] India: President Calls for Speedier Development of it Software Applications in Hindi

Thu Sep 15 13:43:00 UTC 2011

President Calls for Speedier Development of it Software Applications in Hindi
Says: Wider use of Hindi and Regional Languages Imperative in a Welfare State

Hindi Day was celebrated with the President of India, Smt. Pratibha
Devisingh Patil as the Chief Guest, in New Delhi today. Dr. Devisingh
Ramsingh Shekhawat, the President’s spouse also graced the occasion.
Union Home Minister Shri P. Chidambaram presided over the function.
The Ministers of State, Ministry of Home Affairs, Shri Mullappally
Ramachandran and Shri Jitendra Singh also graced the occasion. The
event was organised by the Department of Official Language, Ministry
of Home Affairs.

The celebration of Hindi Diwas is marked by awarding of prizes for
excellence in various fields viz. implementation of Official Language
Policy; Original Hindi Book-Writing on professional domain by the
professionals concerned; Hindi book-writing on subjects of Science and
Technology, including scientific and technological subjects of
contemporary interest; the efficient functioning of Town Official
Language Implementation Committees (TOLICs); and contents and
presentation of in-house journals in Hindi.

The President recalled the critical role played by Hindi during the
period of freedom struggle, and as a link-language for the widest
reach of welfare programmes in the post-independence period. It was on
this day that the Constituent Assembly had decided to accord to Hindi
the status of Official Language of the Union. The country is
implementing a large number of welfare schemes with the objective of
inclusive economic development and equitable social structure. It will
be possible to ensure an effective dissemination of the benefits of
the welfare schemes to the citizens through the medium of Hindi which
is either spoken or understood in most parts of the country. The
linguistic diversity of the country makes it imperative that we strive
for the enrichment of all regional languages. The President urged for
more organized endeavours to undertake translation of celebrated works
in Hindi into regional languages and vice-versa on a mission basis.
She exhorted collaborative projects in this direction with the
Departments of Regional Languages in various Universities of the
country. Giving a clarion call for accelerated development of software
applications in Hindi, she underlined the need for facilitating the
access of the citizens of the country to latest IT-tools like
‘Shrutlekhan’ (conversion from speech to text), and ‘Machine-Assisted
Translation’ (MANTRA) for Hindi-users to ensure speeder spread of
Hindi. At the global level, the use of Hindi has been spurred by an
increasing number of Universities taking up teaching and learning of
Hindi, and by the celebration of World Hindi Day by the Government of
India on 10th January every year.

The President made a fervent appeal for increased use of Hindi and
other regional languages in day-to-day official work, and-for gaining
proficiency in at least one Indian language in addition to one’s
mother tongue. The President felicitated the national-level
award-winners on this occasion.

In his remarks the Home Minister, Shri P. Chidambaram, observed that
Hindi has played a vital role in harmonizing of diverse cultural and
linguistic elements, and in the emergence of a united India.
Expressing his satisfaction with the notable initiatives taken in the
recent months by the Department of Official Language, he said that the
endeavours made in this direction will be further augmented in the
coming period. He spoke about the direction given by the Hon’ble Prime
Minister while chairing the 30th Meeting of the apex-level Committee,
known as Kendriya Hindi Samiti on 28th July, 2011 for formulation of
an all-encompassing strategy for the promotion and use of Hindi as the
Official Language of the Union. He called upon the senior executives
representing Ministries/Departments in Government of India, and
Chairmen and Managing Directors of nationalized Banks and Public
Sector Undertakings and Corporation present on the occasion to
discharge their responsibilities as envisaged under The Official
Languages Rules, 1976. They should assign greater space to Hindi and
implement the principle of cordial co-existence among various
languages as has been envisaged in the Constitution and The Official
Languages Act, 1963.

Shri Jitendra Singh, Minister of State for Home (MOS), in his Welcome
Address, made the welcome information about the augmentation of the
cadre of Central Secretariat Official Language Service (CSOLS). The
improvement in promotional prospects of the officers working in the
field of Hindi will provide a strong fillip to the effective
propagation of Hindi, he said. The Service has been strengthened with
creation of 112 Group 'A' posts and upgradation of 122 Group ‘B’
posts. The Budget of the Department has seen substantial increase,
moving up as it did from Rs. 5.50 crores in 2010-11 to Rs. 20 crores
during 2011-12. He thanked the Finance Minister for these
developments. He noted that the number of Town Official Language
Implementing Committees (TOLICs), the city-level entities for
sustained promotion of Hindi, had considerably gone up, with 29 such
Committees having been constituted in the last nine months. The total
number of TOLICs in the country stood at 301. He lauded the revamping
of the website of the Department of Official Language which has become
contemporary and information-packed and hence citizen-friendly.

With a view to stimulating greater use of Hindi in the field of
Science and Technology by the Ministries/Departments concerned, a new
category of Indira Gandhi Official Language Implementation Award has
been instituted to recognize the good work done by such
Ministries/Departments in official work. In the categories of
Ministries/Departments having a staff strength of 300 or more, the
first prize was awarded to the Railway Board in the category of Indira
Gandhi Rajbhasha Puraskar (Awards). The Ministry of Statistics and
Programme Implementation was ranked as second. Among the
Ministries/Departments having strength of less than 300, the Ministry
of Labour, Legislative Department and Ministry of Information and
Broadcasting were ranked as first, second, and third respectively.

The President also conferred Indira Gandhi Rajbhasha Puraskars for
outstanding work to the Public Sector Undertakings, and autonomous
bodies/Corporations/Boards located in the three linguistic regions of
the country namely, ‘A’, ‘B’ and ‘C’ Regions. While the N.H.P.C. Ltd.,
Faridabad bagged the first prize in region ‘A’, the Cotton Corporation
of India Ltd., Mumbai and Rashtriya Ispat Nigam, Visakhapatnam
received the first prizes in regions ‘B’ and ‘C’ respectively. Among
the nationalized Banks, Allahabad Bank, Union Bank of India and Punjab
National Bank walked away with the first, second and third prizes
respectively.

Under the Indira Gandhi Award for Original Book-writing in Hindi, no
book was found eligible for awarding the first prize. The Second and
third prizes went to Dr. Rekha Vyas and Shri Rajinder for their books
entitled "Samaya Prabandhan" and "Karadhan ki Pramukh Avdharnayen"
respectively. Under the Rajiv Gandhi Rashtriya Gyan-Vigyan Maulik
Original Book-writing in Hindi, Shri Amrit Kumar Singh was given third
prize for his book named "Bhumandalikaran, Bharat Paridrishya Aur
Vikalp". No entry was found fit for bestowing first and second prizes.

The Jaipur TOLIC of Banks, the Baroda TOLIC of Banks and the Bengaluru
TOLIC of Central Govt. offices were adjudged the best TOLICS in
regions 'A', 'B' and 'C' respectively.

Under the category of House Journals, ‘Vimanika’ of Air India, ‘Rail
Darpan’ of Western Railway and ‘Vani’ of Indian Overseas Bank were
awarded the first prizes in regions 'A', 'B' and 'C' respectively. A
new sub-category for conferring honours on qualitatively excellent
House Journals published by organisations in the field of Science and
Technology has been created from this year. The Bharat Petroleum
Sansthan, Dehradun bagged the first prize. On this occasion, a total
number of 52 awards were given in form of
Shields/Mementoes/Certificates/Cash.

Ms. Veena Upadhyaya, Secretary, Department of Official Language,
Ministry of Home Affairs, proposed a Vote of Thanks. She observed that
the vibrancy and dynamism in Hindi can be ensured by promoting the use
of simple, easy and integrative complexion of Hindi. It should be
amenable to assimilation of words from various regional and other
languages. Hindi, like a mother-figure is expected to further
strengthen its approach of cordial co-existence with regional
languages and English.

The event saw the participation by officers of the level of Secretary/
Additional Secretary/Joint Secretary, Government of India, Chairmen
and Managing Directors of Public Sector Undertakings/Corporations,
Chairmen and Managing Directors of nationalized Banks, eminent Hindi
writers and scholars and a galaxy of other distinguished persons.

http://pib.nic.in/newsite/erelease.aspx?relid=75974

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