[lg policy] India: Microsoft to add more languages to Project Bhasha India:

[Harold Schiffman]

Microsoft to add more languages to Project Bhasha
K Rajani Kanth / Hyderabad Feb 21, 2012, 00:11 IST

Microsoft is gearing up to support more languages through Project
Bhasha, an initiative aimed at accelerating local language computing
in India, according to Meghashyam Karanam, product marketing manager
(vision and localisation), Microsoft Corporation.

The Redmond, US-based IT bellwether started Project Bhasha with Bill
Gates announcing it in 1998, in an effort to stimulate local language
computing and take IT to the masses, driven by the fact that 95 per
cent of Indians use local language rather than English in their work
and personal life.
Over the years, Microsoft has localised Windows and Office (providing
localised user interface as well as user assistance) in 12 Indian
languages that include Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada,
Konkani, Malayalam, Marathi, Oriya, Punjabi, Tamil and Telugu.
“It is difficult to pin-point which other languages that we intend to
add. But yes, it is very much on our roadmap. We are working closely
with various government agencies to see which are the languages that
they are pushing for encodement in unicode,” Karanam said.

Unicode is an international encoding standard that is used with
different languages and scripts, by which each letter, digit or symbol
is assigned a unique numeric value that applies across different
platforms and programs.

Speaking to Business Standard on the eve of the United Nations
Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco)’s
International Mother Language Day, being observed since February 2000
to promote linguistic and cultural diversity and multilingualism,
Karanam said: “We are working with various government IT departments
to understand which are the languages of priority. And, depending on
what those processes are and whether that particular language is
encoded in unicode, it will be a prerequisite for vendors like
Microsoft to support it. We are constantly looking at how we can
expand this initiative.”

February 21, in 1952, represents the day when students demonstrating
for recognition of their language, Bangla, as one of the two national
languages of the then Pakistan, were shot and killed by police in
Dhaka, the capital of what is now Bangladesh.

The concept of mother language complements that of multilingualism,
which Unesco strives to promote, by encouraging the acquisition of at
least three levels of language proficiency — a mother language, a
national language and a language of communication.

“Information and communication technologies (ICT) is used in a major
way for promoting mother languages. Additionally, Microsoft's local
language programme aims to empower individuals in local communities to
create economic opportunities, build IT skills, enhance education
outcomes, and sustain their local language and culture,” said Shigeru
Aoyagi, director and Unesco representative (Bhutan, India, Maldives
and Sri Lanka).

According to Pradeep Parappil, senior lead product manager (Windows),
government departments are primarily the heavy users of localisation
given the fact that it is mandatory that the government technology
processes should support the local languages. And, next come consumers
who do email or blog in local languages or people who want tools to
input data into local languages. “So, the trend is more towards input
tools,” he added.

Replying to a query, Parappil said Microsoft's Project Bhasha
currently offered Language Interface Packs (LIPs) for Windows XP,
Vista and Windows 2007 in 12, Windows Live in seven and the Microsoft
Visual Studio CLIP (Captions LIP) in four Indian languages, besides a
bilingual (Hindi-English) and trilingual (Hindi-Gujarati-English)
dictionary.

“Local language usage has fundamentally increased and each state has
what is called a three-language policy. Value addition (local
languages) is always a part of our overall product plans and
localisation will also have product updates,” Parappil said.

http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/microsoft-to-add-more-languages-to-project-bhasha/465301/

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