All 22 Indian language fonts would be available for the public to download
for free in the next six months. Dayanidhi Maran, Minister of Commu-nications
and Information Technology (MC&IT) in-formed this at the release of free CD
containing collection of Hindi software tools and fonts. The release was part of
a national initiative by the Department of IT, MC&IT to proliferate the use
of Indian languages in IT.
While launching the CD and the website Sonia Gandhi, Chairperson, National
Advi-sory Council recalled that when late Rajiv Gandhi decid-ed to develop this
kind of indigenous technology most of the people said that it would not be
possible and some felt that it was not necessary. Facing all the impediments
that came in the way, today CDAC has successfully come out with the language
CDs.
Gandhi added that commu-nicating in one's own mother tongue would be easier
than any other medium of commu-nication. "One can sharpen his knowledge in
his mother ton-gue. Therefore, it is necessary to make available the facilities
of software tools of all Indian languages," she opined.
Referring to the recent enactment of Right to Infor-mation Act, Gandhi said
that it is a revolutionary step and Information Technology will play a greater
role to achieve.
Speaking on the occasion, Maran said that it had always saddened him to see
local language fonts available for free in countries like China, Japan, Korea,
etc, while India still lagged behind in local language computing.
CyberMedia News
New Delhi