Date: Thu, 7 Dec 2006 18:37:24 +0530 From: Subbiah Arunachalam CDAC to launch software tools in seven Indian languages Sapna Agarwal / Mumbai/ Pune=A0December 07, 2006 The Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (CDAC) is all set to launc= h software tools in Punjabi, Marathi, Malyalam, Kannada, Assamese, Bengali = and Oriya by March 2007. =A0 The company had launched Hindi, Tamil, Telgu and Urdu regional language sof= tware tools in 2005. =A0 =93The new software incorporates customer requirements for a localised vers= ion of open source software for email client, multi protocol messenger, bro= wser and office suite besides a content management tool. It contains the st= andard key board drivers, text speech and converters to change from true ty= pe to open type fonts. A new feature called queters, a =91Do It Yourself=92= software kit to increase speed of typing, has been introduced and even the= terminology is a mix of layman and purists, as against only purists termin= ology,=94 said S Ramakrishnan, director general, CDAC. =A0 Mahesh Kulkarni, group coordinator,CDAC, Graphics and Intelligence-based Sc= ript Technology (GIST), said, =93The launch date was advanced from the firs= t quarter of 2006 to 2007 to incorporate user feedback in making the softwa= re more user friendly.=94 GIST is a technology that facilitates the use of = Indian languages in IT. =A0 The regional language software development initiative comes under the Techn= ology Development for Indian Languages (TDIL) project of Department of Info= rmation Technology (DIT), Government of India under which CDAC is an aggreg= ator bringing together the work of different organisations under one umbrel= la. =A0 It is working with CK Technology, Modular Infotech, The Indian Institutes o= f Technology=92s (IITs) Kanpur, Kharagpur and Mumbai, Microsoft, Google and= IBM. =A0 CDAC is a part of a nation wide consortium of 25 institutions for undertaki= ng R&D in regional languages. The consortium is working on four projects re= lated to regional text translation and recognition. =A0 =93We are in advanced stages of development on these technologies,=94 said = Ramakrishnan adding that they have accelerated their focus on developing th= ese technologies this year. =A0 Ramakrishnan hopes to bag a Rs 8 crore project for voice-based multi lingua= l information access (V-MIA) railway reservation system. =A0 =93The project is in the final stages of approval by the DIT and Department= of Science and Technology and we will work in a consortium with other inst= itutions to develop the voice-to-voice information access system for the ra= ilways,=94 he said.