The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) has approved the guidelines issued by Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS), which will mandate manufacturers to provide for display of text in 22 Indian languages on the devices from July 1, 2017.
The approval came through after stakeholder meetings that were held with the industry in July, August and September. During these discussions, the Indian Cellular Association had requested that the new standards could be mandated along with the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) notification that compels device makers to include global positioning system (GPS) from January 1, 2018.
Government’s think-tank Niti Aayog also reviewed the proposal recently, and advised MeitY to revisit the action, as it could result in increase of the costs of these devices to consumers.
Justifying the ministry’s move to go ahead with the proposal despite opposition from several stakeholders, Minister of Electronics and Information Technology Ravi Shankar Prasad notified that the government was keen to introduce Indian languages in mobile phones as it will help in spreading of digital literacy and also accelerate the process of making India a truly empowered society.
By Baishakhi Dutta
