Language translation sector poised for big growth in India

The $500-million Indian language translation market is poised for a big growth as more and more multinational companies are setting up shops in the country expecting the sunrise industry to go miles in the next three years.

The Asian language translation market revenue accounted for $1,312 million in 2008 and is projected to reach $1,410 million in 2009 and touch $1516 million in 2010, according to research and consulting firm Common Services Advisory.

Currently, Indian language market size might be estimated at approximately $500 million, Chinmayi Sripada, CEO of Chennai-based Blue Elephant, a leading language translation service provider, told PTI.

The estimate was based assuming India's share at five per cent of the global market as per the growth pattern projected by Common Sense Advisory and also NASSCOM reports that the country was sharing 5.2 per cent of the Information Technology Enabled Services (ITES) market, she said.

She feels the language translation market has not yet hit boom time. "It is still classified as a sunrise industry and I think there will be a boom in the next three years."

Suguna Ramamurthy, secretary general of Indo-Japan Chamber of Commerce and Industry said the sector is going to see more growth with more companies setting up shop.

The chamber, which provides interpretation, translation and teaching services, has not experienced any "decline" in activities, she said.

Nandini Menon, manager of In Ko Centre, said there has been a "steady" demand for their interpretation services though there has been a "very marginal" decline in personnel coming in to learn Korean.

On the other hand, Chinmayi said recession has hit business globally. "Some of my clients worked on cutting down translation expenditure. But at the same time, this has also been the period where we have been able to tie up with new MNCs with regard to interpretation services."

Language translation service forayed into India in the late 90s with the Internet gaining wider acceptance among the community. Earlier, linguists used to travel to the country concerned or work used to come to them.

Trade sources said the major market is still outside India with a majority of clients showing interest in translating the related text into several widely spoken Indian languages.

"With more tie-ups happening and with entrepreneurs wanting to add localisation, interpretation, translation as another service of value to their clients, the translation industry is undoubtedly growing," Chinmayi said.

Trade sources, however, said the challenge to it is that a major component of the industry functions in an unorganised, unaffiliated nature which, they feel, affects the quality of the final product.

"A lot of linguists in the market, especially interpreters of foreign languages do not have a great command over the English language, especially if they are translating into English," Chinmayi said.