Today, the ability to write or read in your language or use your language on the digital medium is entirely at the mercy of the operating system, says Vivekananda Pani, co-founder and CTO of Reverie Language Technologies. The internet and digital technologies have always been uneven spaces in India, with vast amounts of content, innovation and infrastructural support being available for English, and perhaps a handful of Indian languages. However, the development of Indic languages on the digital medium has seen a resurgence in recent times, with the advent of cheap mobile phones and data plans. We spoke to Arvind Pani, CEO and Vivekananda Pani, CTO of Reverie Language Technologies — a Bengaluru-based company that creates Indian languages solutions for businesses — on what ails the growth of Indian languages, and what the government can do about it. We also talked about what role Reverie is playing within the larger Reliance Jio family; Reliance Industries acquired a majority stake in the company in April 2019. Below are excerpts from the conversation. Please note that the quotes are edited for the sake of clarity and brevity. On what’s ailing the development of Indic languages: The bottlenecks — Dependence on operating system Vivekananda: Today, the ability to write or read in your language or use your language on the digital medium is entirely at the mercy of the operating system. "If you've bought a phone or a computer that supports your language — which may be Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, Odia, Bengali, whichever…
