A common language for different tongues

India’s initiatives on creating public digital goods are getting resounding endorsements from global leaders. Apart from well-known efforts like Unified Payments Interface (UPI), India’s efforts in bringing the digital revolution to languages is being recognised and lauded. 

The Bhashini project led by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology was spotlighted by Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft, and Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google, in their recent visits to India. The government says that “Bhashini aims to build a National Public Digital Platform for languages to develop services and products for citizens by leveraging the power of artificial intelligence and other emerging technologies.”

As millions of Indian join the digital mainstream, they will need information and services in their own languages. Companies that want to deliver their products and services to India’s growing consuming class understand the need to use local languages. 

The Bhashini project is bringing together industry, academia and innovators to create an open repository. Translation applications will be created between several languages — from Tamil to Assamese, or from Punjabi to Kannada. 

Institutions and individuals can contribute in the four pillars of language understanding: Suno (to listen); bolo (to speak); likho (to write); and dekho (to read). Since Bhashini is a public project, everyone can contribute but no one company can have a monopoly to use or license. The open-source framework will help it grow with crowd contributions.

The project is in its early stages and has the promise to democratise the digital use of languages. The applications of digitising Indian languages are varied. The rise of voice-based commands in devices will require digitised versions of many languages. While mobile phones are the most common examples of devices with language capabilities, the breakthrough will be seen in mass use of medical and wearable devices. Even on a shop floor, the embedding of a variety of languages can help reduce the communication gap through apps. 

Currently, most understand English commands while some understand Hindi. Device makers can offer voice-based commands in various options as more and more languages are digitised.

“The rising popularity of online information searches may increase the demand for language translation software and services. Similarly, as a result of technological improvements and breakthroughs in the smartphone market, the global language translation software market is likely to grow dramatically in the coming years,” according to a report by Adroit market research. 

“Developing countries such as Brazil, India, and China are expected to experience strong expansion in their enterprise sectors, presenting huge potential opportunities in the global language translation software market.”

Adroit research says that the language translation market was worth $8.39 billion in 2019 and is expected to be worth $24.66 billion by 2029, increasing at a compounded annual growth rate of 18.2 per cent from 2019 to 2029.

The translation market itself is set for disruption, as translation as a business is giving way to free translation options, especially in developing countries like India. Creation of a public digital good out of translation and language services is a unique effort in India.

A range of sectors — including health, education and training — will benefit from content being converted into local and regional languages. Extension services like speech recognition are being aided by artificial intelligence, which can be made to understand the nuances in accents and dialects.

Many government and welfare services can also benefit. Regional communities can engage with local authorities through online services in their own language. E-commerce can be deepened once more languages are added. Not just buyers, even sellers can benefit by being able to use digital services in the language they are comfortable with.