[Fsf-india] [OFFTOPIC] NEWS: Indian language solutions....

[Frederick Noronha]

My friend from Pune, Ashish is one of those working on the issues
below. They are apparently working on more GNU/Linux based
solutions... since I wrote this article sometime last year. If you'd like
to share ideas and suggestions with Ashish, please contact
ashish@mithi.com Thanks, FN

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COMPUTING FOR THE MILLIONS: INDIAN LANGUAGE SOLUTIONS...
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By Frederick Noronha

IN A COUNTRY of a thousand million, where only a tiny segment of the
population speaks English, what relevance does computing have to the
commonman? For many years now, a small firm from the central Indian city
of Pune (earlier Poona) is keen to ensure that the non-English computer user
is not left out in the cold.

Called 'Mithi' -- or Mithi Software Technologies Private Limited -- this
firm has been consistently churning out interesting Indian-language
software solutions for some time now.

"Mithi is a very small firm, with some 25-26 persons working at it. Thirteen
to fourteen are developers. The rest are admin and marketing people," says
Mithi's Ashish Kotamkar, who goes on to explain that the firm doesn't
believe in tagging designations to its staff.

By now, Mithi has made a name for itself by working for more than eight
years in developing local language solutions. "Our focus has always been on
local language technology. We felt this was a big opportunity, which nobody
was taking seriously. Lots of people were creating fonts, which is a very
easy job," he says.

Ashish points out that the more difficult task is "understanding
technology", and how each solution behaves with different OSs (operating
systems), and perform with different applications. "Not many people are
giving that a thought," he says.

Today, Mithi's work allows an Indian computer user to send e-mail in a dozen
different languages, print Indian language documents, develop Indian
language software and websites, and even create hypertext content in 'desi'
languages for educational and information CDs.

Years ago, Mithi collaborated with C-DAC for developing A "totally
indigenous and customised" application. Their jointly worked-on solution was
known as Leap or iLeap, and got widely appreciated among non-English
computer users in India who were eagerly waiting for an affordable and easy
solution to their many needs.

"This is different from just being a font which rides on an English-based
application," he says. "We did the designing and the development of the
software. We used CDAC's spell-checker and fonts. Mithi and C-DAC have a
joint copyright on the product," he says.

This product, developed in 1993-94, was called Leap. It came in two versions
-- Leap Office for the office environment, and iLeap for individual users.
While the former cost Rs 12,500 for the end-user, the individual version
cost a reasonable Rs 1500-2000 for the user. Under special deals with ISPs
(Internet Service Providers), users got it at even more affordable rates.

"We always put in a lot of emphasis on encoding and standards. all our
products and solutions are based on universal solutions like ISCII and
Unicode. We also have striven to make our software as user-friendly as
possible, so as to ensure acceptability and adopt-ability," says Ashish
Kotamkar.

"People had apprehensions. 'How can you use Indian language software?' 'How
would you be able to type?' To sort out this, we offered on-screen
keyboards, and a phonetic way of typing (that made the inputting of
Indian-language texts a simple affair)," he says.

Soon iLeap began to become one of India's most-popular and widely-used
software product, outside the accounting packages. "We have a user base of
400,000 to 450,000," says Kotamkar.

Currently, this innovative firm's focus is on using the Internet as a
medium. "We are moving onwards. We have a completely customised e-mail
application called Mailjol Unplugged. This allows you to send and receive
email in 11 Indian languages and English. You can use the English keyboard
to write messages in Indian languages. You simply type the word as it is
spoken, using English characters," says Ashish Kotamkar.

It has a simple user interface, is based on standards and can undertake easy
searches through one's email. It can also set up an address book.

Prior to this, Mithi had developed Mailjol.com - a free Indian language
web-based email system. "Currently, we have 150,000 registered users in some
120 countries. These are basically people of Indian origin. Some 30% of our
users are NRIs (non-resident Indians)," Kotamkar adds, with a tinge of
satisfaction.

Earlier, many had skepticism whether NRIs would need such Indian-language
solutions. Why bother when they could use widely-available English mailing
solutions? "But when people migrate out of the country, one of the first
things they do for relatives back home is set up a computer, and try to get
some way of communicating with them in their mother tongue, as our
experience shows," explains Ashish Kotamkar.

"NRIs are using this solution very effectively. It's being used very
intensively by people (back home) who did not have any earlier exposure to
computing," says he.

But the idea with Mailjol.com -- the free website -- was to prove a concept.

"It was never meant to be a revenue model. We just wanted to showcase our
technology, and get it validated," says Kotamkar. It has since more than
done that, with the excellent response it has earned.

It served its purpose. But the next step was to offer an off-line solution,
which allowed one to prepare e-mail messages without having to be hooked
onto the Internet.

In much of India, speedy connectivity to the Internet is still a problem.

This means that staying-logged onto the Net for long hours to type and read
e-mail can be a problem. "Even 30-40 kms outside Pune (where our firm is
based), connectivity is not in good shape. People do not stay online for
longer times," he says.

To work their way around this problem, Mithi has launched an off-line e-mail
client, called Mailjol Unplugged. This multi-lingual desktop email software
allows you to send and receive e-mail in 11 Indian languages. Plus English.

It allows you to continue using existing email software like Outlook Express
or Netscape Messenger. One can configure to receive or send email in Indian
languages using any POP email account.

Another new product is a 'content creator' for Indian language solutions. It
enables one to create content in local languages. Says Kotamkar: "It's an
option to what is otherwise a complex, round-about way of creating content,
using HTML tagging and putting up your page. IndiaPage makes putting
together an HTML page in Indian languages a very simple job. You just enter
the text, save it as HTML, and that's all there is."

Indian language computing solutions can be difficult to work on.
Standardisation -- or lack of it -- is still a major issue. This is a
country that has 18 nationally-recognised official languages. In the 1961
and 1971 censuses, some 1652 languages had been listed as mother-tongues
spoken in India. Indian tongues have evolved from different
language-famillies, including the Negroid. Austric, Sino-Tibetan,
Dravidian, Indo-Aryan and 'Other Speeches'.

But there are advantages too. Indian languages have their own plus points
too. They are phonetic in nature, unlike say English. To take advantage of
this, Mithi has fine-tuned the phonetic keyboarding algorithm.

"I can type in the Kannada language, without even knowing the language.
That's the beauty of having a fine-tuned phonetic keyboard and supporting
standards like ISCII," elaborates Kotamkar.

Another product is an Indian-language Software Development Toolkit.
"Developers can create any application and integrate local language
solutions into it," says Kotamkar. There's a tight integration of regional
languages in their applications. This works for desktop and web-based
applications too.

In some rural areas, Mithi's work is already getting used to its optimum. In
Bagalkot, a sugar-factory near the Maharashtra-Karnataka border in
south-western India has planned some 17-18 kiosks around the factory.

Farmers will be able to get information -- on seeds, prices and consultancy
-- by using touch-screen devices. All this in their regional languages.

Recently, Mithi also brought out its first product using Open Source
components. "It's a one-box solution. Any server running Linux can be set up
in minutes using it. You can actually host your mailing systems on your
web-server, in no time."

Mithi also plans to work on small, grassroots application in open source. In
the long run, this group is considering to port its applications to Linux.
Unlike other many other export-oriented software firms, Mithi proudly says
"our focus is the Indian market as of now". It is also working closely with
other innovative projects like Tarahaat.com and Gyandoot, meant to take
computing to the grassroots. (ENDS)

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Frederick Noronha * Freelance Journalist * Saligao 403511 Goa India
fred@bytesforall.org  * Phone +91-832-409490 Mobile 9822 12 24 36
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