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Chandigarh 29th March:- In its commitment to make computing in Hindi and other local languages more accessible for users, Microsoft today showcased an array of technology innovations across its products and service portfolio. At an event in Chandigarh, Microsoft showcased the integration of Hindi and Punjabi on Office 365, Sway, Skype IM translator, Bing and Windows Phone that is available at no extra cost for consumers. The products and services portfolio showcased today has made Hindi and Punjabi Language computing more intuitive and discoverable for users, enabling them to be more productive.
In this information-driven world, for millions of people, linguistic divide continues to be a barrier for the effective use of technology. India being one of the world's largest digital economies has a high level of linguistic diversity with 22 major languages, written in 13 different scripts, with over 720 dialects. The proliferation of the affordable devices and increasing mobile internet penetration is opening up newer opportunities to support local languages through technology, especially for those who still remain untouched by the digital revolution. The number of local- language Internet users in India is growing at 47% year-on-year and has touched 127 million in June 20151. The numbers clearly highlight an opportunity for both, the Central government and Chandigarh authorities that are on a mission of digital inclusion.
Microsoft has been dedicated to this cause for over 15 years and is the pioneer in providing native Unicode support for Hindi since the year 2000. The company also showcased key innovations that have helped create economic opportunities, build IT skills, enhance education outcomes, and sustain our local language and culture.
Speaking on the occasion, Alok Lall, Director, Office Marketing said that in our commitment to empower users to achieve more, we are delighted to announce a suite of Hindi and Punjabi compatible products and services that users can use at no extra cost. We continue to enhance capabilities, making it easy for users across geographies to use our products and services without facing the language barrier.
He further said that we have been a partner to India's developing technology landscape for the last 25 years and continue to invest in the same. With Project Bhasha, we are accelerating Hindi language computing in India wherein, Microsoft is primarily focusing its efforts in three key areas: Product localization, Government collaboration, Academia & Developer Integration through a common platform www.bhashaindia.com. We further fortified these efforts by launching cloud services from India data centers, making Hindi language computing on the local cloud a reality.
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