Monday, January 12, 2004		Feature

UN project for non-English speakers

IN a bid to make the vast reserve of knowledge on the Internet available to people across the world who do not understand English, a UN supported project is on to convert this information into various other languages, a scientist said at a session on traditional knowledge at the Science Congress that concluded in Chandigarh recently.

"Eighty per cent of the things available in the Internet are in English language which is not understood by many," Dr Ashok Misra, director of IIT Powai, said . The project aims at converting this knowledge into local languages by first changing it into a universal networking language (UNL) which would then be converted into the non-English local language, he said. Several countries like Brazil, Japan, China, Middle East countries and Egypt besides India are participating in the project.

IIT, Powai, is working to convert the knowledge into Hindi, Konkani and Marathi languages. Since the project involves linguists, several institutes from India are working on it.

IIT Powai was also being used at the village level and Internet kiosks were being established so that instead of going to far-off places to buy official forms, people could get them in the villages itself in their local languages. It would also simplify the procedures for such official work, Mishra said.

Asserting that traditional knowledge needed to be protected, Mishra said even classical dance and music need protection as they are associated with healing properties. "The traditional knowledge cannot be separated from the people who own it." — PTI