The University Grant Commission (UGC) on 13th of July released “Guidelines for Translation of Books into Indian Languages”. The authority allowed ‘Anuvadini’, a tool based on Artificial Intelligence. This initiative has been taken according to NEP 2020 in promoting the Indian Languages. The institutions and Translations Experts expressed distrust of the machine’s output with an accuracy of concepts and meanings. They sought for a trained professional to monitor it.
The UGC permitted educational Institutions to use the ‘Anuvadini’, a tool for translating books into Indian Languages. For using this machine tool, UGC has guidelines that the translation must be simple and concise when translating the text from its original. Institutions and users will have to keep in mind that Sentences would be no longer and multiple clauses might be avoided if possible.
The tool ‘Anuvadini’ is based on Artificial Intelligence (AI) and has been developed by the All India Central Council of Technical Education (AICTE). It works by fetching the ‘words’ or data collected by the Commission for Scientific and Technical Terminology (CSTT). According To UGC “ CSTT has developed many standard glossaries of various subjects and they can be accessed by the tools in translating the study Materials.”
In the issued Guidelines the UGC has mentioned “NEP 2020 emphasizes the promotion of the Mother Tongue or Local Language in the higher educational institutions”. UGC at 8th guidelines among the Twelves, guidelines “Translation shall always convey the complete meaning and concept of the original text. It need not necessarily be a word0t0-word translation.”
After its launching, Professor Pancham Mohanty from the School of Languages and Literature at Nalanda University expressed his distrust of the machine’s qualitative work in translation. “Every language has lexical and structural ambiguities, therefore machine – translated outputs have to be carefully edited”. He further demands “ there must be trained professionals to validate and edit the output of the machine.”
The AICTE is also seeking to translate B.Tech books into Indian Languages. But a professor considers some problems as “Technical courses taught in regional languages would prove difficult for students in jobs while exchanging in English.”
A professor of the University of Delhi figured a graph “ About 79% candidates opted for tests in English, 20% selected Hindi while 1% for other local languages” and urged UGC “Students and Parents intend to study in English for their career development and the government should realize this.”
