First international Telugu Internet meet begins

The first international Telugu Internet conference began here on Wednesday. Unicode Consortium vice-president and Unicode Technical Committee Lisa Moore delivered the keynote address at the First International Telugu Internet Conference organised jointly by Andhra Pradesh Government, SiliconAndhra and Global Internet Forum for Telugu (GIFT).Minister for Information Technology and Computers Ponnala Lakshmaiah said that Andhra Pradesh Government had become a permanent member of the Unicode Consortium. Attempts were being to develop six fonts to begin with. The Minister said that he would donate the Rs. 6 lakh needed for developing one font to be named after his family ‘Ponnala'. Principal Secretary for Information Technology and Computers Sanjay Jaju said that Andhra Pradesh Government was the only Government to become a full member of the Unicode Consortium. He said that the full membership would give the Government voting rights and a lot of space for Telugu language on the internet.

He said the Minister was the first to come forward to contribute for the development of a Telugu font. He said a unicode font for cellphone would also be developed soon.

Former Minister and honorary chairman of the conference Mandali Buddha Prasad said that internet was the only thing that could integrate the Telugus all over the world. Languages with smaller populations have made tremendous advances in the field of computers and internet. Andhra Pradesh Society for Knowledge of Networks CEO A. Amarnath Reddy said making Telugu more internet friendly would improve the chances of Telugu people getting better jobs.

Tokyo University of foreign Studies faculty Peri Bhaskara Rao and University of Hyderabad faculty memberG. Uma maheswara Rao. TV 9 CEO Ravi Prakash spoke. Several language and computer experts are presenting papers in the three-day conference closing on Friday. Chief Minister N.Kiran Kumar Reddy is scheduled to address the delegates through the internet on the closing day for 15 minutes beginning at 9.30 a.m. local time.