NEW DELHI, DEC 6: The Graphics and Intelligence Based Script Technology (GIST), a language technology mission of the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (CDAC), Pune, has decided to launch a nationwide awareness campaign to promote the use of computers in Indian languages.Chandrashekhar Raje, Group Coordinator, GIST Business Division, said the campaign will begin on December 17 in Bangalore with the launch of Kannada Authorised Training Centres (ATCs) in the state and will be followed by various promotional programmes in other states.GIST has on the occasion appealed to all State Governments to come forward to support nurturing of their respective languages and urged the Indian Information Technology (IIT) industry and its associations to encourage the campaign so as to help the country face the challenges of the 21st century.GIST, established a decade back as a national mission to nurture the Indian languages, has decided to create computer awareness among urban and rural masses through a series of conferences, seminars, debates, audio-video programmes and road shows, Raje added. The National Information Infrastructure (NII) will be the national agenda of India in the near future. But over 95 per cent of the Indian population is not familiar with English and will be deprived of this facility. The vision of NII will remain a dream. The only solution is to educate the Indian masses and encourage them to use the computer in their mother tongue.In this context, GIST is committed to provide multilingual and multimedia technology to this vision and the nationwide campaign is aimed at fulfilling this commitment. GIST, Raje said has had its sight on securing the future of every living language of the world. This pioneering technology has been evolved over time to eliminate all language barriers and has provided a complete solution for applications such as data processing, word processing, DTP, graphic design, multimedia and video works. Under the globalisation plan, GIST is already working with SAARC nations and has launched the programme called Extending the use of Multilingual and Multi-media Information Technology.
