Page 3 - Languages

Mahagathbandhan demands official language status for Bhojpuri in Bihar

The demand for grant of official language status to Bhojpuri, arguably the most widely spoken dialect in Bihar, has intensified with the opposition Mahagathbandhan strongly coming out in support of it in the state. Senior leaders of the RJD, Congress and CPI(ML) Liberation, constituents of the Mahagathbandhan, said they would raise the issue in Parliament. The old demand got a fresh impetus after the Union Cabinet's recent decision to accord classical language status to five more languages - Marathi, Bengali, Pali, Prakrit and Assamese. The number of such languages now is 11, since Tamil, Sanskrit, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam and Odia got the tag earlier. CPI(ML) Liberation's Lok Sabha MP Sudama Prasad said, The language is spoken widely in districts such as Bhojpur, Rohtas, Kaimur, Buxar, Saran, East Champaran, West Champaran, Gopalganj, Siwan and Jehanabad in Bihar, and several parts of Jharkhand. Why is the Centre silent on inclusion of Bhojpuri in the Eighth Schedule of the ...

Academics hail Centre for granting classical language status to Bengali

Academics and Bengali identity advocacy groups have hailed the decision of the Centre to accord classical language status to Bengali language expressing hope that it will facilitate in greater use of the language in official communication and examinations. Eminent indologist and linguist Nrisingo Prasad Bhaduri said he hoped that after the honour, at all India level, there will be greater use of the language in competitive examinations, more use of synonyms of familiar English terms in science and economics and present day students will feel encouraged to use these Bengali synonyms in their exams. Thanking West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, Bhaduri said after he and other academics drew her attention to the fact that Bengali was not accorded classical language status despite having thousands of years of history from the day of its origin and evolution. "The state government submitted voluminous documents in this regard very promptly and the recognition came in 6-7 months ...

Digi Yatra to be made available in regional, int'l languages: Official

Digi Yatra, which seeks to provide seamless movement at airport check points, will be made available in regional and international languages, according to a senior official. The facility is now available at 24 airports and is expected to be rolled out at 4-5 more airports in the coming months. Digi Yatra Foundation CEO Suresh Khadakbhavi on Tuesday said a pilot project is likely by June next year for connecting two countries with Digi Yatra. Under the pilot project, foreign citizens will be able to use Digi Yatra. Speaking at the CAPA India Digital Aviation Summit in the national capital, Khadakbhavi said a campaign will be started to sensitise passengers about the facility. While Digi Yatra is slowly gaining traction, concerns have been expressed in various quarters about the privacy of data of the passengers. He said Digi Yatra will be made available in regional and international languages. Based on Facial Recognition Technology (FRT), Digi Yatra provides for contactless, seam

Telugu Language Day 2024: History, significance, celebrations and more

The Telugu Language Day honours one of the oldest and most prominent Dravidian languages in India. It is also the official language of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana

Bridging the pivotal language-knowledge gap for a Viksit Bharat by 2047

The integration of Indian knowledge systems into modern education holds tremendous potential in bridging the gap between traditional Indian thinking and contemporary science and technology

Including evidence in question confuses ChatGPT, lowers accuracy: Study

Asking ChatGPT a health-related question that included evidence was seen to confuse the AI-powered bot and affect its ability to produce accurate answers, according to new research. Scientists were "not sure" why this happens, but they hypothesised that including the evidence in the question "adds too much noise", thereby lowering the chatbot's accuracy. They said that as large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT explode in popularity, there is potential risk to the growing number of people using online tools for key health information. LLMs are trained on massive amounts of textual data and hence are capable of producing content in the natural language. The researchers from the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) and The University of Queensland (UQ), Australia, investigated a hypothetical scenario of an average person asking ChatGPT if 'X' treatment has a positive effect on condition 'Y'. They looked at two question formats - either just a question

What is the 60% Kannada signage rule? Here's all to know about the law

After the Karnataka HC asked the State to avoid any coercive action against shops failing to comply with the Kannada on signboards rule, here's a look at the history of the Kannada preference struggle

Don't seek votes on basis of caste, religion, language: EC to parties

Ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, the Election Commission on Friday asked parties and their leaders to refrain from seeking votes on the basis of caste, religion and language, and not insult the devotee-deity relation or make any suggestion of a divine censure. In an advisory warning the parties, candidates and star campaigners of stern action for any violation of Model Code of Conduct instead of the previous practice of only 'moral censure', the poll panel also said that temples, mosques, churches, gurdwaras or any other place of worship should not be used for poll propaganda or electioneering. It said that the star campaigners and candidates who have received notices in past will face stern action for repeat violation of model code. The advisory comes days before the model code is expected to come into effect with the announcement of the Lok Sabha and four state assembly polls later this month, Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar had recently emphasised that political parties sho

Assam to recognise Manipuri as associate official language in 4 districts

The Assam Cabinet has given its nod to recognise Manipuri as an associate official language in four districts of the state. It approved the Assam Official Language (Amendment) Bill, 2024 which seeks to recognise Manipuri as an associate official language in Cachar, Karimganj, Hailakandi and Hojai districts. The Bill seeks to amend the Assam Official Languages Act, 1960 by inserting a new section 5B. Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said that the decision taken at a late-night cabinet meeting chaired by him was in the interest of protecting, preserving and promoting the cultural, social, and linguistic identity and heritage of the Manipuri people living in Assam. To protect the interests of the tribal communities, and in line with the provisions of the National Education Policy, 2020, the council of ministers also decided to introduce Mising, Rabha, Karbi, Tiwa, Deori and Dimasa languages as mediums of instruction in the foundational stage of school education. The decision will .

Protesting 'localisation' push: Karnataka Inc bats for merit over politics

Karnataka is home to over 5,500 IT and IT-enabled services firms and nearly 750 MNCs, contributing to over $58 billion in exports

International Mother Language Day 2024: History, theme, importance, wishes

International Mother Language Day is celebrated every year on February 21. The purpose of this day is to promote and save native languages, and bring issues to light on inclusive education

Finding community

Despite not being from the region, the directors of Nocturnes and Flickering Lights were able to faithfully document stories from the Northeast by building bridges first

Happy New Year 2024: Here's how to wish New Year in 12 different languages

Happy New Year 2024: The year is about to end and people across the world have started preparing to welcome 2024. Here are the 12 different languages to say Happy New Year

'Days of Russian Language in India' to be celebrated in New Delhi, Chennai

The event has been commissioned by the Federal Agency for the Commonwealth of Independent States, Compatriots Living Abroad, and International Humanitarian Cooperation

It is necessary to create Kannada speaking environment in Karnataka: CM

The CM further said that we should love other languages and religions but we should not forget our own language and held Negligence responsible for non-implementation of Kannada in administration

Translation tools end language barriers

When Google Translate was launched in 2006, instant language translation became available to millions

Include local dialect in Gramin Dak Sevaks recruitment: NSF to Centre

Welcoming the Centre's decision to open new branch post offices (BPOs) in the state, the Naga Students' Federation (NSF) has requested it to include proficiency in local dialect as an additional qualification for recruitment of Gramin Dak Sevaks. NSF said it has learnt that the department of posts intends to recruit 173 Gramin Dak Sevaks, branch postmasters (BPM) and assistant branch postmasters (ABPMs) to serve in these newly established BPOs. "The NSF is delighted to acknowledge the ministry of communication's initiative in the department of posts to open 70 new BPOs in Nagaland. These BPOs are expected to bring essential banking and postal services closer to remote villages of the state, a commendable step towards rural development," a statement by the NSF said. Welcoming the recruitment drive, the NSF said the draft model notification by the department of posts stipulates Hindi or English as the local language for the engagement of Gramin Dak Sevaks in Nagaland. "While these ..

Bankers flag risks in new voice-enabled payment feature on India's UPI

The government-backed feature called Hello UPI will allow users to pay via apps and calls in Hindi and English, and will soon roll out services in other regional languages

Nation will be empowered only by promoting all Indian languages: Amit Shah

Union Home Minister Amit Shah said on Friday that Hindi is not in competition with local languages and the nation will be empowered only by promoting all Indian languages. Charing the 38th meeting of the Committee of Parliament on Official Language here, Shah also said there can be no other favourable moment for the promotion of Indian languages as Prime Minister Narendra Modi proudly presents Hindi and all other Indian languages on global platforms, an official statement said. Hindi is not in competition with local languages, the nation will be empowered only by promoting all Indian languages, Shah said. The home minister said Prime Minister Modi has taken the initiative to start engineering and medical courses in 10 languages and soon these courses will be available in all Indian languages. That moment will mark the beginning of the rise of local languages and official languages, he said. The prime minister has never given a single speech in Parliament in English and the union .

Google rolls out AI chatbot Bard to Europe and Brazil, adds more languages

"Starting today, you can collaborate with Bard in over 40 languages, including Arabic, Chinese, German, Hindi and Spanish," Google senior product director Jack Krawczyk said in a blog post