PUNE: The Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) in Pune will play a big role in the National Language Translation Mission announced by finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman in the Union Budget on Monday.
The demand to access online services in local Indian languages has been growing steadily over the years. Experts maintain that knowledge should be accessible in local Indian languages. It would boost the economy, provide employment, ensure good governance and bridge societal gaps.
C-DAC is leveraging this need with machine and human translation to make science and technology accessible facilitating teaching and research material bilingually, in English and regional languages.
Director-general of C-DAC, Hemant Darbari, said, “We are going to focus on government, agriculture, science and technology sectors and build an ecosystem through the government’s initiative for translation of languages. Our aim is to deploy innovative methods and engage as many startups as possible in this project.”
Darbari said the work had started long ago and he has been working on it for 32 years.
“We have adopted a mission to remove the barrier of English language requirement and make science and technology accessible to all. Using machine and human translation, the mission will eventually enable access to teaching and research material,” he said.
The mission aims at translating governance and policy-related information available on the internet into regional languages. It is in tandem with the National Education Policy 2020 where the stress is on creating content and its delivery in Indian languages.
The mission aims to promote knowledge text translation in all major disciplines taught in colleges and universities. It will run certification and training programmes for translators. It will promote machine-aided translation between English and Indian languages.