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It was the dream of late Prime Minister Shri Rajiv Gandhi that India should develop on its own a super computer for the country and now the dream has been fulfilled. It was two decades ago, when America had not made available India the super computer, Shri Rajiv Gandhi decided that India should on its own develop such technology and for that purpose the C-DAC (Centre for Development of Advanced Computing) was set up. Smt. Sonia Gandhi, Chairperson, National Advisory Council said this while releasing the free CDs containing rich collection of Hindi Software Tools and Fonts to the public, here today. Smt. Gandhi also inaugurated the website http://www.ildc.gov.in which would provide free distribution on-line, upon registration by the net surfer at the designated website. Shri Dayanidhi Maran, Minister of Communications & Information Technology, Dr. Shakeel Ahmad, Minister of State for Communications & Information Technology and several other Cabinet Ministers were also present on the occasion. Smt. Gandhi distributed the Hindi CDs to the Editors & Publishers of various prominent Hindi Dailies as also the Chief Executives of the Electronic Media.
Speaking further on the occasion Smt. Gandhi recalled that when late Shri Rajiv Gandhi decided to develop this kind of indigenous technology most of the people were telling that it would not be possible and some felt that it was not necessary. Facing all the impediments that came in the way, today CDAC has successfully come out with the language CDs. Two months ago, the Tamil CD was released and today the Hindi CD has come. Smt. Gandhi said that communicating in one's own mother tongue will be easier than any other medium of communication. One can sharpen his knowledge in his mother tongue. Therefore, it is necessary to make available the facilities of software tools of all Indian languages. Referring to the recent enactment of Right to Information Act, Smt. Gandhi said that it is a revolutionary step and Information Technology will play a greater role to achieve.
Speaking on the occasion Shri Dayanidhi Maran, Minister of Communications & Information Technology said that in India only 5% of the population are speaking and writing in English while the rest of 95% are communicating in their mother tongue only. When we were talking of broad band and taking computer to villages, therefore it is necessary to develop the CDs in all the Indian Languages. We will make all the 22 Indian Language fonts free to all the country men, he said. Computer penetration can be only successful only if the countrymen in the rural areas are able to access to the computer in his mother tongue. The Minister told the distinguished gathering the idea of launching the website with free downloading was in consonance with the principles adopted by the foreign countries on the issue of languages. He recalled the struggle that any one had to make in those hard days for developing a font and that too not compatible with each other.
Dr. Shakeel Ahmad, Minister of State for Communications & Information Technology, Shri Brijesh Kumar, Secretary, DIT, Prof. R.M.K. Sinha, IIT Kanpur and Dr. Rajeev Sangal, IIIT, Hyderabad also spoke on the occasion.
RM/AMA- 200605 CDAC
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