Microsoft ushers in local language computing in West Bengal

Microsoft Corporation India has signed a MoU with the Government of West Bengal for the statewide roll-out of its Project
Bhasha, an extensive program aimed at accelerating local language computing. The MoU was signed for one year, by the Department of IT Secretary, GD Gautama and Microsoft Corporation's India Business and Marketing Operations Director, Ranjivjit Singh in the presence of Government of West Bengal's Department of IT and Environment Minister, Manabendra
Mukherjee. 

Under the MoU, Microsoft will collaborate with the West Bengal government for deployment of freely downloadable Bengali Language Interface Pack for Microsoft Windows and Office across government offices. The Language Interface includes the Bengali glossary of translated words, and localized terminology for menus and dialog boxes. Besides Microsoft Windows XP and Microsoft Office 2003, the entire Microsoft platform has been enabled in Bengali. It provides server, database and developer tools functionality for Bengali language users.

Microsoft will also assist the state Government in setting up of Bhasha Language Lab at a premier education institute in West Bengal. Through the labs, Microsoft will also organize regular events on latest technological trends related to local language based application development. On the skills transfer front, Microsoft will organize training workshop for government employees and 'Writers Workshop', where there will be in-depth discussions on how to use Microsoft products with Indian languages. It will also provide technical training, tools and sponsorship to developers for creating localized
unicode-based Bengali language applications. 

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