INDIA, December 24, 2001: With 90% of Indians unable to speak and write English, the language barrier has become a real issue as most modern day computers have an English keyboard. In an attempt to develop software that will adapt the English language alphabet so that the keys produce Indian text, many companies did not coordinate their efforts. As a result, text could not be read on a computer using rival software and the whole idea of computer communication was jeopardized. To remedy the divisions, the South Indian states of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu have recently developed their own uniform standards, and one computer company in Pune has figured out a way to send and receive e-mail in 11 Indian languages. Affordability has become an issue with many of the software programs and users are pushing for free software. A free operating system called Linux is readily available over the internet and has been adopted by the Indian Institute of Technology and the National Centre of Software Technology for the cities of Chennai and Bombay to communicate in Tamil and Hindi.
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