'Regional Official Language' conference in Bengaluru today

The Department of Official Language, Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India, in collaboration with Canara Bank, will host the Joint Regional Official Language conference at HAL Management Academy, Marathahalli, on Friday.

The department conducts four such conferences every financial year to promote the adoption of Hindi for official usage. Two conferences have already been held at Mumbai and Jodhpur.

The south and southwestern region conference, the third of this year, is being conducted in association with implementation partner Canara Bank and will cover Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala and Andhra Pradesh, and Union Territories Pondicherry and Lakshadweep. 

A total of 32 awards under various categories will be given out by the department to banks, central government offices and undertakings in these areas, and those part of the Town Official Language Implementation Committee (TOLIC) will be awarded for the adoption of the best strategies to implement Hindi in their work.

The conference will also explore various technological advancements that will help ease the adoption of Hindi for official purposes in the southern states.

“Working on computers in any regional language is a little difficult because we do not have supporting software applications. So, lectures in the conference will explore these technological challenges and developments, what has to be done to grow Hindi as a language and how it can be done in tandem with other languages, which will co-exist with Hindi," E Ramesh, TOLIC Secretary, Bengaluru, said.