NE SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY BUREAU
AHMEDABAD, AUG 22
Taking a commendable step to reach out to the majority of the population of India that doesn’t understand English, the Government of India leveraged Anuvadak’s technology to translate and publish the MyGov Covid-19 page in 10 different languages, a company release said.
To give shape to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision of making an inclusive digital India and enabling nation-wide digitization, Reverie Language Technologies is creating Internet for every Indian, in their language.
Commenting on this, Arvind Pani, CEO, and Co-founder at Reverie Language Technologies says, “As we emphasize on #VocalForLocal, it is imperative that businesses and governments are empowered with the right tools to reach out to all of India. Anuvadak is one such endeavor to tap into the potential 536 million Indian-language internet users. Our work for MyGov.in resonates with the vision of the Indian government’s motion for Digital India. With Reverie striving to build an internet for every Indian, Anuvadak will go a long way in building an inclusive digital India.”
Abhishek Singh, CEO – MyGov; President & CEO – NeGD; MD & CEO, Digital India Corporation (DIC) at Government of India, on Twitter, recently thanked Reverie for translating MyGov.in’s page in local languages.
The ongoing pandemic is driving fast internet adoption among the millions of previously unconnected Indians for carrying out no-contact tasks, such as grocery shopping, availing online banking and healthcare services, and more. We are increasingly realizing that the internet is not a luxury but a necessity.
In order to bridge the language gap in a country known for its linguistic and dialectic diversity, Anuvadak has been built keeping in mind that websites in English are not enough to reach out to the 90% of people who don’t understand the language. It is also imperative to note that for the huge number of Indian language internet users, less than 0.1% of the total online content is available in local languages.
Although mass media channels like newspapers, TV, radio, etc., have understood this language demand much early in the game and have been catering to the local-language audience, the internet has been slow to catch up in the language arena. The increasing smartphone penetration in India among the rural populace and those in non-metro areas, coupled with cost-effective mobile data prices, also cements the fact that more Indians are looking to go digital.
Businesses aspire to tap into the 536 million Indian-language internet user base that is growing at a significant pace. However, when it comes to building websites in Indian languages, there is a resistance either due to dearth of resources or time. Anuvadak is a one-stop platform, which can help businesses localize in multiple languages through automated website publishing and management technologies, specifically developed for Indian languages. The platform can scale down the website localization time by 40% and can save as much as 60% of the localization and content management costs, the release added.
