Wordy weaknesses

Last week, Union Minister for Information and Broadcasting Prakash Javadekar was addressing a technology event with a focus on promoting Indian languages on the internet. During his rousing speech, delivered in somewhat laboured Hindi given Javadekar's Marathi roots, the minister tried to highlight the point that the target of 300 million new internet users in three years was indeed possible and so was the agenda to popularise local content on the mostly English-oriented internet. However, the minister did express some disappointment with the translation services currently being used. Because they translate each word, advertisements tend to get translated literally with sometimes absurd results. Technology should devise a way to help in this area too, he added. With several technology biggies present, perhaps the minister will not be disappointed for long.