Natural Language Translation Mission Is On The Cards

In News

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) is set to place a proposal at the Cabinet related to Natural Languages Translation Mission.

In-Detail

• Natural Language Translation Mission was suggested by the Prime Minister’s Science, Technology and Innovation Advisory Council (PM-STIAC) as one of the key missions.
• The Mission is a part of the 100-day action plan of the MeitY.
• The aim of the mission is to make science and technology-based literature such as research papers, teaching materials etc, available to all by making them available bilingually – both in English and one’s native Indian language.
• The government will put to use both machine translation and human translation for the purpose.
• Machine translation includes both speech-to-speech translation and text-to-text translation.
• As per the officials of the Ministry, the proposed outlay for the project is Rs. 450 crore.
• For overcoming the language barriers the government is planning to set up a translation ecosystem involving central and state governments and start-ups.
• Start-ups are expected to provide implementable solutions to undertake research.

Employment

• The translation mission will generate employment for hundreds.
• The mission will not only help the students but also teachers, publishers, authors, translations software developers, and general readers.

Nodal Agency

• Meity is the nodal agency for implementing the Mission.
• Ministry of Human Resource Development and the Department of Science and Technology will be participating in the mission.

PM-STIAC

• PM-STIAC is an overarching council that will assess, create and implements major scientific, technology and innovation interventions in India.
• It has proposed the following 9 science missions:
  • Natural Language Translation
  • Electric Vehicles
  • Artificial Intelligence
  • National Biodiversity Mission
  • Quantum Frontier
  • BioScience for Human Health
  • Waste to Wealth
  • Deep Ocean Exploration
  • AGNIi

National Translation Mission

• National Translation Mission (NTM) was set up by the Government of India after the recommendation of the National Knowledge Commission.
• The objective of the NTM was to translate knowledge texts into all the VIII schedule languages.
• The Central Institute of Indian Languages was appointed as the soda agency for implementing NTM by the Ministry of Human Resource Development.

Conclusion

Research has found that learning best occurs when the learning material is in one’s own mother tongue. In India, there is a fad among the urban middle class to join their wards in English medium schools. One wonders how much learning the children are able get through this medium.

On the other hand, a vast population of the country dependent on vernacular language for gaining knowledge but they fall short especially in gaining science-based knowledge. The reason, there is no clear translation of scientific materials which are majorly published in English.

The Natural Language Translation Mission is thus an important mission that will enable native language speakers to understand science and gain scientific temper.