Dated, March 20, 2007
The Financial Express

The Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) is working on an Indian language search engine plug-in. This will enable Indian language users to access the language web sites using key words in 22 Indian languages, S Ramakrishnan, director general, C-DAC said.

C-DAC is in talks with Google and Yahoo to offer plug-ins on their search engines. C-DAC has been working on Project Nashir for the last eight months and will take six months more to complete the project, Mahesh Kulkarni, programme co-ordinator (GIST), C-DAC said.

Currently, Indian language users have to perforce use English for their information search on the internet. “With the new plug-ins, one can get access to all kinds of information available on the net,” Kulkarni said. C-DAC has been working o the Graphics and Intelligence-based Script Technology (GIST) since the 80s. “Indian people should be able to receive information in their regional languages and this is the idea behind Project Nashir,” he added.

The desi key word search facility will be available not only in mainstream Indian languages but will also in languages spoken by people in a very small geographical area such as Santhali, Bodo, Maithili and Dogri. In the first phase, the facility will be available in Hindi, Gujarati and Urdu. A team of 100 people have been working on the project.

C-DAC is also working on the hand-written text identification programme. With the help of PDA, on high-end mobile handsets, one can search for hand written words on the pad.To mark its 20th Foundation Day, C-DAC organised a TechShow showcasing technologies developed at the centre.

This included PARAM Supercomputer system, Real Time Weather System, Area Traffic Control System, Electronic Nose, GIS enabled Road Management and Monitoring System, Cybercheck Suite, Black Box for automobiles and Multiprompter Pro.