Microsoft India joins the World Classical Tamil Conference by sending its representatives to the seminar and participating exhibition.
A release says the company’s spokespersons Kumaran and Michael Kaplan will present papers on the origin of Tamil Unicode and importance of language computing.
The release says Microsoft India has been working on language computing in India since 1998 and has a number of products.
It began with the visit of Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates when it was realised that localisation was the key to usher in IT revolution in the country.
This was because “With over 33 languages and 1652 dialects, India is a nation of diverse cultures and languages. About 95 per cent of the population prefers working in regional languages and only five per cent conducts its business in English.”
The release also says, “The disparity in language usage contributes to the digital divide. To bridge the same, the company has since 1989 been working to overcome the language barrier.”
Microsoft has developed a host of custom-made solutions for Indian market, as part of its on-going efforts to make technology accessible by localising flagship products. The solutions and tools include:
‘The Indic Language Input Tool’ is a set of tools that helps users enter Indian language text into computers easily and quickly. It is available in two versions – desktop and web.
‘Internet Explorer 8’ in 18 additional languages on Windows Vista/Windows Server 2008 Language Packs which allow users to access InPrivate Browsing, Web Slices, Accelerators and Visual Search in Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Kannada, Konkani, Malayalam, Marati, Oriya, Punjabi, Tamil and Telugu.
‘Language Interface Packs (LIPs) are available in 12 Indian languages, including Tamil. Windows Live, which includes e-mail, instant messenger, online storage, photo gallery, social networking, etc., is also available in Tamil.
‘Captions Language Interface Pack’ (CLIP), a significant Microsoft initiative, has been launched for Tamil and a few other languages. It is a tool that uses tooltip caption to display translations for user interface items in Visual Studio 2008. The release says this is the first tool specifically designed to help students and beginner developers in India use the product in their own language.
The release says Microsoft India has also launched Project Basha, a cohesive effort to bring together governments, academia and others on a common ground to promote local language usage in IT.
