BHASHA SAMACHAR March-April, 2018 FICCI-Indian Language Internet Alliance Newsletter An alliance to foster the growth of Indic Internet in order to enable access to ICT infrastructure in all Indian languages. Welcome to the first newsletter by FICCI – Indian languages internet alliance (FICCI-ILIA). Our monthly newsletter will capture all the exciting news, views and events from the Indic language ecosystem. Where we stand now: FICCI-ILIA is 70 members strong now! Our current members are a good mix of big and medium sized online regional news and media, regional publishers, academic institutions and technological companies developing Indian language technology. FICCI-ILIA website is ready for launch and we will soon share it with all our members. FICCI-ILIA was part of the Sixth Project Advisory Committee Meeting by a consortium of academic institutions developing text and Speech corpus. FICCI-ILIA was also part of the Google for Tamil event to establish its presence in the Tamil publishing community and drive registration. In the coming month FICCI-ILIA plans to hold its first committee meeting to welcome its members and lay down a clear plan of action for the next one year. Watch this space for more information on the same! 1 FICCI-Indian Language Internet Alliance Newsletter Events Google for Tamil, March 13, 2018 FICCI-ILIA was part of the ‘Google for Tamil’ event organized by Google to launch their monetization product AdSense in Tamil. The event was held at Hyatt Regency, Chennai on March 13, 2018. The event was attended by Tamil online media, entertainment and news organizations as well as individual bloggers, content creators and translators. This event was identified as a platform to connect with the Tamil regional language community to briefly introduce about FICCI-ILIA and then take the conversation offline to network with the participants, share the objectives of FICCI-ILIA and drive registration. This outreach initiative had the following objectives: 1. Establish the presence of FICCI-ILIA among the Tamil language community 2. Share the objectives and benefits of FICCI-ILIA 3. Sign up of potential members at the event 2 FICCI-Indian Language Internet Alliance Newsletter Sixth Project Advisory Meeting of LDCIL, March 16, 2018 FICCI-ILIA attended the sixth project advisory committee (PAC) meeting hosted by Linguistic Data Consortium for Indian Languages (LDCIL) in CIIL (Mysore) on March 16, 2018. LDCIL constituted a project advisory committee in 2012 of various resource centres and academic institutions to develop text corpus for 22 Indian Languages in 7 domains under 122 categories. LDCIL is leading this initiative. Apart from the PAC members, representatives from the industry was also present. The main objective for the meeting was to share the work done so far with the committee and also take feedback from the industry who would be the direct consumers of the corpus. FICCI-ILIA at the event FICCI-ILIA was invited as the nodal body linking government/ research organizations and the industry. In the meeting the vision, mission and the plan ahead were shared with the PAC and the industry representatives present. FICCI-ILIA proposed a collaboration with LDCIL to evangelize the corpus within the industry when it is ready and loop back feedback from the industry for continued development of the corpus. 3 FICCI-Indian Language Internet Alliance Newsletter Showcase News Internet in Indian languages can add 200 million new users: IAMAI report Internet in Indic languages would be a key motivator for 23 per cent of Internet non-users to go digital, said the report by not-for-profit industry body Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI)... Read more ................................................................................................................................................. How online vernacular market is becoming the next big battle ground for tech cos According to a 2017 report by KPMG and Google, “Indian Languages — Defining India’s Internet”, there were 234 million Indian-language internet users... Read more ................................................................................................................................................. ShareChat to add Assamese, Bhojpuri to its network ShareChat, a fast growing vernacular social network, has said it will add two more regional languages –Assamese and Bhojpuri—to its network of 10 languages by the end of this month.... Read more ................................................................................................................................................. Netflix, Amazon join regional bandwagon with Marathi, Bengali, Tamil movies Regional content, be it films or documentaries, comedy or music, has been firing up the Internet in India for a few years now... Read more ................................................................................................................................................. Google to focus on growing Tamil language content on the web In an effort to create a bigger market for Tamil language content on the web, Google held an event on Tuesday in Chennai bringing together publishers, bloggers and advertisers from across the state... Read more 4 FICCI-Indian Language Internet Alliance Newsletter FICCI-ILIA Family Technology Greynium Information Lionbridge LinguaSol Technologies Pvt. Ltd. Indus OS Google Technologies Reverie Language Megdap Innovation Coderays Sharechat Technocom Technologies Pvt. Labs Technologies Solution Ltd Keypoint Process 9 Dailyhunt (Verse Valli Software Shabdkosh Innovation Pvt Ltd) Solutions Technologies Language Mediology Software HinKhoj.com Webdunia.com Consultancy BiliTutor Pvt Ltd Services Shinja Pvt. Ltd Modular Infotech iGrow Global IBM IndianTTS Pvt Ltd Solutions Pvt Ltd 4CPlus Internet Microsoft Langscape Mayflower Matrubharti Company Ltd. Language Solutions Language services Pvt Ltd Pvt. Ltd. Anycommerce eRelego Chennai Pvt Ltd Intel Online news and media Dainik Bhaskar Amar Ujala Menaka Prakashan Times Internet Network18 Limited ABP News BBC Network Publishers Dinakaran (Kal Navakarnataka Sage Publication Publications Pvt Publications Pvt. Patrikai.com Wiley India (India) Pvt. Ltd. Ltd) Ltd. Total Kannada Pratham Books Pratilipi Shabdanagri Santra Publications Oxford University Press 5 FICCI-Indian Language Internet Alliance Newsletter Government Bodies and Resource Centres Central Institute of Indian Statistical IIT Madras Indian Languages, University of Goa CDAC Pune Institute, Kolkata Mysore IIT Guwahati IIT Patna JNU University of IIT Kanpur Hyderabad IIT BHU IIIT Guwahati IISC CDAC Noida University of Kashmir, Srinagar Dravadian Society for Language University of Jadavpur University University, Andhra Technology Mumbai Pradesh Development Upcoming Events in Regional Languages To bring about more conversations and discussions around Indic ecosystem, follow the upcoming conferences below. The 5th International Hindi Conference, 2018 To build an effective forum for networking among Hindi and other language professionals or supporters, the Fifth International Hindi Conference is organised by collaborative efforts of Hindi Sangam Foundation, NJ, USA, Hindi Sangam Foundation, New Delhi, India and Consulate General of India, New York. Not only will this conference aim at proliferating Hindi language belt further from educational perspective but also applying it at distinct business or commercial practices from international partnerships perspective. To read more, please click here Interspeech, 2018 (Speech Research for Emerging Markets in Multilingual Societies) India is characterised by their diversity of languages and Indian market is witnessing a significant digital transformation where the challenge lies with people indulging in casual conversations of multiple-languages. To overcome this challenge, Interspeech 2018 themed on, “Speech Research for Emerging Markets in Multilingual Societies”, will address aspects of speech science and technology, ranging from basic theories to advanced applications including computational modeling and technology development inspired by recent advances in artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML). To read more, please click here Tele: 011-2375-3125 Email Id- [email protected]; [email protected] Address: FICCI-Indian Languages Internet Alliance Team, 4th Floor, Federation House, Tansen Marg, New Delhi - 110 001 6 FICCI-Indian Language Internet Alliance Newsletter.