ابوشامل
محفلین
ابھی کچھ دیر قبل مندرجہ ذیل خبر ملی ہے، اس بارے میں مزید معلومات درکار ہیں:
Minister launches Urdu Translation software
Islamabad (PPI) Federal Minister for Information Technology, Dr. Abdullah Riar, Thursday inaugurated the Urdu Lexicon, Text-to-Speech & English-to-Urdu Translation Software funded by the Ministry of Information Technology under the e-govt. program.
While launching the products, he stated that this product would have far reaching effects on delivery of services to citizens electronically and thus help in bridging the digital divide within the country.
He stressed the fact that importance of this research and produced software can not be over stated. He said that Internet and broadband usage numbers in Pakistan are quite low and the introduction of such software will help boost these numbers in particular and the ICT industry in general.
He said the magnitude of benefits which can ensue with widespread public use of the software tools will be immense. While bringing the true utility of internet to the masses, this will also help in boosting the internet and information resource use on mass scale, he added.
Dr. Abdullah Riar further said that the Ministry of Information Technology is committed to spread the latest facilities of Information technology in the country. He added that the IT sector has the capability to help Pakistan leapfrog over multiple phases of development and contribute significantly to GDP thus benefiting the common man.
He pointed out the potential of the IT sector is based on the exceptionally talented youth of the country who have been winning laurels internationally both individually and as part of major corporations.
The English to Urdu Translation component of this released software which can be used with popular web browsers will enable the common man to reap the benefits of the wealth of information available on the internet in English language by translating whole web pages into Urdu, thereby bringing web’s true utility of information dissemination.
The Text to speech component that translates Urdu text to audible speech will be immensely beneficial to majority of Pakistani population who can understand but not read Urdu, he said.
At the same time, he said this will come in handy for people with visual impairments and disabilities bringing them into mainstream of information revolution. He said the Urdu dictionary, developed as part of same Urdu Processing research initiative funded by the MoIT, puts at the disposal of the users explanation of some 120,000 Urdu words and phrases with 90,000 carrying detailed description.
Overall the three main components which are being offered for free, and additional software which can be developed using tolls which were also made publicly available free of charge, have the ability of drastically transforming the way Pakistani nation gets and uses information, he said.
Dr. Riar said that while we move forward on e-enabling and using leading technologies, we cannot afford to restrict access to only the English speaking part of population thus creating a digital divide. An immense amount of information has been produced to date and is being produced by government of Pakistan every year in English.
However, he said, this information (printed or published on internet) is not accessible to vast majority of Pakistanis because they do not understand it. Due to enormity of task and resource requirement, it is not possible to regenerate the material in Urdu, our national and commonly understood language all over Pakistan.
Dr. Riar said such softwares and technologies would enable material to be translated and made available to the rural masses of the country. Urdu lexicon text to speech and English to Urdu translation software that is being made available to the IT companies and the general public today is a step in this direction.
The federal Minister also highlighted the efforts of Electronic Government Directorate, which he stated was doing an admirable effort in automating routine functions of the federal government and assisting federal government organizations in making their services available online to citizens. Ultimately this would enable citizens to access government services without having to physically visit government offices, he said.
Concluding his speech, the federal minister expressed the hope that within next few years Pakistan would be an advanced and developed state in the field of information technology, standing in line with developed countries.
He said Urdu and other Pakistani languages need to be brought at par with research and development to enable them to survive in the information age. He said it is also important to give access to information to the people in Pakistan adding that is only possible in Urdu, the national language and lingua franca of Pakistani people.
He said Ministry of IT is proud to have led the way to start this process. This release is a necessary step towards the socio-economic development of the people of Pakistan through the use of Information and communication technology. This work lays basis of the future research in this area, and it is hoped that many more universities and private sector organizations will take this and build on this to develop useful applications for Pakistani people.
He said the translation component can be used to translate English text into Urdu and then display the translated text in Urdu, enabling most Pakistanis to have access to English language material.
Another major component of this product is text to speech generator.
This component will enable written text to be spoken out. The software would be available to IT companies and other organizations to incorporate into their applications or build applications around these so as to deliver some citizen service to the general public. He said databases can be linked to these software and the material then transmitted to the public through a medium they can understand.
Islamabad (PPI) Federal Minister for Information Technology, Dr. Abdullah Riar, Thursday inaugurated the Urdu Lexicon, Text-to-Speech & English-to-Urdu Translation Software funded by the Ministry of Information Technology under the e-govt. program.
While launching the products, he stated that this product would have far reaching effects on delivery of services to citizens electronically and thus help in bridging the digital divide within the country.
He stressed the fact that importance of this research and produced software can not be over stated. He said that Internet and broadband usage numbers in Pakistan are quite low and the introduction of such software will help boost these numbers in particular and the ICT industry in general.
He said the magnitude of benefits which can ensue with widespread public use of the software tools will be immense. While bringing the true utility of internet to the masses, this will also help in boosting the internet and information resource use on mass scale, he added.
Dr. Abdullah Riar further said that the Ministry of Information Technology is committed to spread the latest facilities of Information technology in the country. He added that the IT sector has the capability to help Pakistan leapfrog over multiple phases of development and contribute significantly to GDP thus benefiting the common man.
He pointed out the potential of the IT sector is based on the exceptionally talented youth of the country who have been winning laurels internationally both individually and as part of major corporations.
The English to Urdu Translation component of this released software which can be used with popular web browsers will enable the common man to reap the benefits of the wealth of information available on the internet in English language by translating whole web pages into Urdu, thereby bringing web’s true utility of information dissemination.
The Text to speech component that translates Urdu text to audible speech will be immensely beneficial to majority of Pakistani population who can understand but not read Urdu, he said.
At the same time, he said this will come in handy for people with visual impairments and disabilities bringing them into mainstream of information revolution. He said the Urdu dictionary, developed as part of same Urdu Processing research initiative funded by the MoIT, puts at the disposal of the users explanation of some 120,000 Urdu words and phrases with 90,000 carrying detailed description.
Overall the three main components which are being offered for free, and additional software which can be developed using tolls which were also made publicly available free of charge, have the ability of drastically transforming the way Pakistani nation gets and uses information, he said.
Dr. Riar said that while we move forward on e-enabling and using leading technologies, we cannot afford to restrict access to only the English speaking part of population thus creating a digital divide. An immense amount of information has been produced to date and is being produced by government of Pakistan every year in English.
However, he said, this information (printed or published on internet) is not accessible to vast majority of Pakistanis because they do not understand it. Due to enormity of task and resource requirement, it is not possible to regenerate the material in Urdu, our national and commonly understood language all over Pakistan.
Dr. Riar said such softwares and technologies would enable material to be translated and made available to the rural masses of the country. Urdu lexicon text to speech and English to Urdu translation software that is being made available to the IT companies and the general public today is a step in this direction.
The federal Minister also highlighted the efforts of Electronic Government Directorate, which he stated was doing an admirable effort in automating routine functions of the federal government and assisting federal government organizations in making their services available online to citizens. Ultimately this would enable citizens to access government services without having to physically visit government offices, he said.
Concluding his speech, the federal minister expressed the hope that within next few years Pakistan would be an advanced and developed state in the field of information technology, standing in line with developed countries.
He said Urdu and other Pakistani languages need to be brought at par with research and development to enable them to survive in the information age. He said it is also important to give access to information to the people in Pakistan adding that is only possible in Urdu, the national language and lingua franca of Pakistani people.
He said Ministry of IT is proud to have led the way to start this process. This release is a necessary step towards the socio-economic development of the people of Pakistan through the use of Information and communication technology. This work lays basis of the future research in this area, and it is hoped that many more universities and private sector organizations will take this and build on this to develop useful applications for Pakistani people.
He said the translation component can be used to translate English text into Urdu and then display the translated text in Urdu, enabling most Pakistanis to have access to English language material.
Another major component of this product is text to speech generator.
This component will enable written text to be spoken out. The software would be available to IT companies and other organizations to incorporate into their applications or build applications around these so as to deliver some citizen service to the general public. He said databases can be linked to these software and the material then transmitted to the public through a medium they can understand.
