New Delhi, September 14, 2002

Hindi Day is not a ritual any more, it is a battlefield for Language computing

Launching the LILA Pragya Hindi package of the Department of Official Language and C-DAC, on September 14, 2002 on the occasion of the Hindi Day in Vigyan Bhavan, Indian Deputy Prime Minister Shri. Lal Krishna Advani lauded the various activities aimed at developing software in the field of language computing and expressed the hope that the Department of Official Language would develop many more applications in the field of language computing in the years to come. Launching the Hindi portal of the Department of Official Language, he said that this facility would now enable a direct interaction between the government and the public. Referring to one of his articles 'How English Became the Official Language of England' written 30-35 years ago, he said that an English poet had said that if the whole of England adopted English as its mother tongue, English could become a world language one day. Similarly I believe, if the whole of India adopts Hindi as its language, it can become a world language.

On this occasion, Shri. R.K. Arora, the Executive Director of C-DAC, Pune, gave a presentation depicting the various developmental activities accomplished during the past few years in the field of language computing. In his speech, he highlighted the importance of standardization and its effect on various computer softwares and applications with reference to LILA products, ISM, iPlugin, Gist Card, MANTRA (machine translation sysyem) and Devnagari OCR. He explained the scientific base and phonetic features Indian languages in relation language computing. He also referred to the various developmental activities based on standards like fonts, Inscript and ISCII. While explaining the R & D work being undertaken in the field of natural language processing, he underscored the importance of machine translation, speech-to-speech translation system, OCR and language-based information retrieval system.

The Chairman of the function, Honorable Shri. I.D. Swami, the Deputy Home Minister, informed that the Central Hindi Committee had unanimously passed that there should be a compulsory Hindi question paper like the one in English in the All-India Examinations of the UPSC and that the marks of both these question papers should not be counted in determining the merit. It should be sufficient for the candidate to pass in any one of two question papers.

The Honorable Deputy Prime Minster presented the Indira Gandhi Rajbhasha Award to the nationalized banks and financial institutes for their excellent and admirable work in the implementation of the Official Language policy.

A technical seminar was held following the inauguration function in which presentations were made on language technology, machine translation technology, Optical Character Recognition (OCR) and Hindi eMail. Prof. Suraj Bhan Singh gave a presentation on the information and knowledge base of IT and explained the role of language interface in the context of developing countries. Dr. Hemant Darbari gave a technical presentation on Machine Translation Technology. Another scholar Shri. Aditya Gokhale gave his presentation on Optical Character Recognition (OCR) and Ms. Nandini De on Hindi eMail.

In his welcome speech, Shri. S.K. Tuteja, Secretary, Department of Official Language, described the various achievements of the Department of Official Language particularly in the field of language computing. He also informed that now on the Hindi eMail facility would be available in the Department's portal and that the officers of the department would be available to the visitors for chat in the website at fixed hours. Concluding the function, Shri. M.L. Gupta, Joint Secretary, Department of Official Language, expressed his thanks to the Chief Guest and the Chairman of the function.