Paramaribo (Surinam): In a bid to get Hindi established as a universal language, a software package was released by V K Malhotra, an Indian delegate, at the 7th World Hindi Conference at Paramaribo, Surinam on June 8.

The "Leela Hindi language software package" has been developed by Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC), a society functioning under the Indian government's Department of Electronics (DoE).

Malhotra said that more softwares were being developed with Hindi interface, which would make things easier for users not comfortable with English, which is supported by most IT companies worldwide.

"Whatever computer applications are available today, be it associated with data processing, desktop publishing, Power Point or Excel, we can work with them in Hindi also. In the coming years, we will have many more computer softwares and applications coming in the Hindi language. This will definitely help those who have a problem in working on the computer due to their problems with English language. In fact, the next Microsoft Office 2003 package by Microsoft will be having a Hindi Interface," Malhotra said.

The Leela software enables a user to learn Hindi language through English and other regional Indian languages.

The software has several user-friendly features, including a spell check and allows the user to edit or export the text output to various other softwares.

It has an interactive graphic user interface which provides tutorials on letter writing and Hindi pronunciation.

"This software enables the user to learn Hindi through English and other Indian regional languages. There is another product (launched by C-DAC) called 'Chitrankan', in which a written product can be digitised, scanned and converted into text for further processing," said Mahesh D Kilkarni, group co- ordinator, C-DAC.

Hindi, mother tongue of people of Northern India, has emerged as the world's second largest spoken language and is used in at least 76 countries.

The five-day conference, which ended on June 9 promoted the role of Hindi as a modern communication tool and strengthened links with the vast Indian diaspora.

India has a strong presence in the South American nation, as nearly 35 per cent of Surinam's population are of Indian origin.

ANI