We celebrate linguistic diversity, but technology is not available in local languages

Every Indian has a right to high speed broadband internet . One of the known ways to increase broadband penetration is to encourage the creation of local language content. Even if users go online, there has to be something on the internet that is relevant to their needs, available in their native language. Korea and Australia are examples where users directly connected to broadband services, before opting for narrowband options, because of an increase in the amount of local content. India has 22 scheduled languages and 122 languages with more than 10,000 speakers. There is a lot of room for growth for publishers when it comes to creating local language content. The kind of content needed is not just news, and information, but videos and games as well. There is a need for developing voice interfaces for web services in regional languages. Kiosks, ATMs, ticketing machines and vending machines in local languages will help in an increase in number of people using these services. Residents in rural areas, and everyone but those who live in metro cities, have shown a high propensity for using local language services. The response for creation of technology enabled services in the local language has not been appropriate taking the demand in consideration.  Keyboards, software, search engines, mobile operating systems, all of these are more useful to people in local languages, if the latest technology tools and services are to be made available to those who are now under-served. This will help bridge the digital literacy gap, by allowing a large number of people to use electronic devices in a familiar language. This is not just a matter of translation. Sure translation can be easily achieved, but there is also the need of the generation of relevant to the locals, and utilitarian. The content should be within the local cultural context, tailored to the audience, with a voice that the local speakers of that language can relate to. The government can at least create fonts, keyboards and standards, that allow for the creation of local language content. Maybe even an India specific mobile operating system with support for all the local regional languages is needed to help in increasing broadband penetration. The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology recently held a meeting with representatives of Google, Microsoft and Rediff in an effort to get technology corporations to support email addresses in local languages . This is an effort to allow citizens living in rural and semi-rural areas to have access to email with local language handles. The implementation will start with Hindi but will roll out for other languages as well.  The Google Indic keyboard is available for text entry in 23 languages. The input options include entry with english characters, a local language keyboard, and the ability to trace out the letters directly on the touchscreen. The Indic Project creates open source information infrastructure for Indian Languages. It has text to speech systems, predictive transliteration, Indian language processing applications library and fonts available for Indian languages.