Nitin Ji Namaskar !.
Its good that we are talking to each other over this forum. I appreciate the concern put
up by you in the email below. C-DAC is one of the organizations which is in favour of
promoting INSCRIPT, rather Enhanced INSCRIPT Keyboard layout i must say.
Through this forum, i must declare that, we are ready to train various organizations,
schools, colleges, groups of individuals, NGO's, Govt, Non-Govt and anybody for that
matter on use of INSCRIPT on computers. We can also participate in big events, workshops,
discussions, etc to promote this activity. Kindly suggest/ nominate who so ever is
interested in learning this thing and where it is not manageable by one agency. We can
work together towards this cause.
Regards,
Chandrakant Dhutadmal
----- Original Message -----
From: Nitin Nimkar
To: fuel-discuss(a)lists.fedorahosted.org
Sent: Monday, August 06, 2012 7:00 PM
Subject: Re: FUEL Becomes Integral Part of e-Gov Standard vide CoE Marathi
Hi All,
I am glad to know about the initiative. Thank you Mr. Rajesh Ranjan for keeping informed
about these developments. I would like to participate in future such initiatives.
To inform you about myself, I am a trustee of an NGO active in the field of primary
education. I have been helping them to use IT technology in their educational
initiatives. The NGO's website is bi lingual in Marathi and English. We are running an
online forum for teachers, particularly primary teachers from all over Maharashtra. The
Forum is run in Marathi. We also offer e-learning to the teacher students all in Marathi.
All URLs are at the bottom after my signature.
I think in all this process, I have gained some insight in the whole process of using IT
in Indian languages.
I think the most important and critical skill needed at user end is not of IT but is of
Typing in Indian languages. Here I would like to point out that all of us who are involved
in IT and localization are bi lingual in English and Marathi or any other Indian language,
and therefore are comfortable using English QWERTY Keyboard for both English and Indian
languages. Therefore we think that a transliteration method is just the best way of
inputting info in Indian languages. However, my experience in running above mentioned
forum and e learning initiative tells me that INSCRIPT is the best method of inputting
content in Indian Languages. That is the most comfortable solution for those who only
speak Indian Language. I think this is the single most reason why all efforts to update
content in Indian Languages fail.
When we are talking about Unicode, standardisation, etc. we should also give equal
importance to the standardization of INSCRIPT Typing across the state/Nation. Here, I
would like to point out that QWERTY keyboard for English has a history of 135 years. An
attempt by DOVARK key board which comes in all Windows edition could not replace QWERTY
for English. However, this isn't the case for Indian Languages. We have 8 keyboards in
Marathi, and those are creating havoc.
I am aware about the initiative by C-Dac of offering various keyboard drivers in one
application for those who resist to change. This is something similar like Indic IME.
This could be a temporarily solution, but I think we should make determined efforts to
standardise INSCRIPT keyboard, for which a driver comes along with all flavours of
operating systems.
We should embark upon a state wide and a Nation Wide Training and Certification program
in INSCRIPT for Government Employees, Teachers, professors in Universities, students and
for all those who are involved with Indian Languages. Let us ignore the present employees
who are resisting to change from earlier keyboards. But let us not leave this as a loose
end. My experience with the students and teachers is very much encouraging. The
students, teachers and those who do not have a baggage of non INSRIPT keyboard learn the
basic typing skills in just 15 to 20 days with a practice of 1 hour daily. So it is a
question of only 15 to 20 hours for a learner.
I have taken initiative at personal level to teach INSCRIPT typing to all those who are
involved with our websites, e learning initiatives. However, if we can reach to other
sections of the society with the help of C-Dac or Red Hat and Government, we can change
the situation. I think I will be of some help with this initiative.
On a lighter note, I would like to inform you all that, I read yesterday in a news
paper that Kabir Khan, director in Bollywood, told media that Katrina Kaif is the only
actress who needs Hindi script in Devanagari, because she has learned Hindi that way. But
to get those script typed in Devanagri is a hell of a job for Bollywood, because there are
not many who can type in Devanagari efficiently. Can we change this situation?
Nitin Nimkar
http://www.quest.org.in
http://forum.quest.org.in
http://elearning.quest.org.in
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Rajesh Ranjan <rajesh672(a)gmail.com>
To: fuel-discuss(a)lists.fedorahosted.org
Sent: Monday, August 6, 2012 4:27 PM
Subject: FUEL Becomes Integral Part of e-Gov Standard vide CoE Marathi
Hi,
I am pleased to share with you that Government of Maharashtra has decided to go with
FUEL [1] as one of the linguistic standard(s) for e-Governance. On Saturday August 4,
2012; CoE (Center of Excellence) Marathi [2] workshop was organized by C-DAC GIST at
Mantralaya, Mumbai, Maharashtra State. Mr. Rajesh Aggarwal, Principal Secretary Department
of IT, Govt. of Maharashtra and Mr. Mahesh Kulkarni, Programme Co-ordinator, GIST, C-DAC
along with representatives from various IT companies were present at the workshop. Agenda
for the workshop is here [3].
Mr. Rajesh Aggarwal discussed in detail about the significance of standardization and
importance of all government website(s) to be in native (as primary language) and English
(as secondary language). He emphasized that linguistic content of public use need to be
licensed under Copyleft [4].
Mr Mahesh Kulkarni elaborated on "Standards - importance, issues, challenges &
solution". During his presentation, he focused on Unicode, INSCRIPT, Open Font
format, searching, sorting, database, issues in Marathi localization, FUEL, CLDR, Script
Grammar, etc. Speaking about FUEL, he highlighted FUEL terminology, Style Guide,
Assessment Method(s), FUEL project road-map, etc.The FUEL terminology for Marathi is
available for download [5] on CoE website.
Later a team of language experts discussed about FUEL-mobile and FUEL-web terminology
(Marathi). Team decided to meet at the earliest and finalize them. Towards the end of the
workshop, the outcome of discussion with language experts regarding FUEL mobile and web
module(s) was delivered to the audience by Mr. Chandrakant D (GIST, C-DAC) and myself.
The workshop concluded with Mr Rajesh Aggarwal and Mr Mahesh Kulkarni providing an
action plan to make the Centre of Excellence for Marathi successful.
Centre of Excellence for Marathi is setup to boost e-governance initiative of govt of
Maharashtra[6].
I am thankful to Mr Rajesh Aggarwal and Mr Mahesh Kulkarni for supporting FUEL. Thanks a
lot to Prof Anil Gore, Chandrakant D, Sandeep Shedmake, Damodar Magdum along with
representatives of mahaonline and all the language group presents there to make the
language related discussion vibrant.
[1].
http://www.fuelproject.org ;
https://fedorahosted.org/fuel
[2].
http://coe.maharashtra.gov.in/index.php?option=com_content&view=artic...
[3].
https://fedorahosted.org/fuel/raw-attachment/wiki/fuel-marathi/coe-worksh...
[4].
www.gnu.org/copyleft
[5].
http://coe.maharashtra.gov.in/material/FrequentlyusedentriesforLocalizati...
[6].
http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/news/states/article3639047.ece
--
Regards,
Rajesh Ranjan
www.rajeshranjan.in
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