Noida start up Panini Keypad breaking language barriers on mobile phones

A start-up company based in Noida is winning great praise from the world for doing what many IT giants have failed to do on mobile phones - break the language barrier !

Luna Egronomics , the company behind the innovation, Panini Keypad, has enabled its clients to type and send messages directly in their native language, using even a basic, under Rs 2000 phone.
The virtual keypad can either be downloaded to the phone from the company website or taken as a service through a value card. Once it is installed, they can begin the typing by using the phone keyboard to follow the character prompts appearing on the screen.

Although the keypad can work for any world language, the big benefits in this are for the Indians. Several of them who do not know English have now their first real chance to take a shy at texting!
"There are close to 650 million mobile connections in India. However, only 90 million users know English," says company CEO Abhijit Bhattacharjee.

"For the remaining majority, services such as sms and email make no sense, because, to use them people need to have at least a working knowledge of English."

Currently, the best language products for phones require the users to first form the words of the native script using English letters. It means that to write 'grapes' in Hindi, they have perforce to type 'Angoor' in English first. The products work on the assumption that the users know English!

Technology watchers are, of course, much excited with the Panini innovation. Mita Das, one of the members on the panel that picked it up for the 2011 TiE50 world award, is celebrating.

"Though Indian languages are widely spoken, not a single Indian language makes it to the most-widely used languages in the mobile texting world. This is mainly due to the challenges of entering text on a mobile handset that is really not made for the Indian languages."

There are, of course, other related problems too that Panini solves.

Currently, even in the few available bi-language phones, it is a tough task to type. Users have to tap several times on each key to get the right letter in place. This problem is circumvented by the Panini's support function called Clever Texting, which statistically lends intelligence to the character prompts on the screen.

When users try to write, the desired character intuitively jump on to the screen, as if it were being read off the users' mind! And it is always accurate - quite unlike the experience that users have while using character prompters that are dictionary based!

Users, no doubt, are at an advantage here, but with Panini it is also equal advantage to the phone makers. They can now cluster and market language choices as part of their phone offering to their customers. That is no mean business as far as the manufacturers are concerned.

Raju Sastry, head of consumer and business messaging at Nokia India, explains the ground position.
"Of the 1.12 billion people of India, 70 per cent live in rural areas. That is more than 700 million people spread around 6,27,000 villages. While the penetration levels in urban centers... range between 50 per cent to over 100 per cent, the rural penetration ranges from a maximum of 32 per cent to under 4 per cent. The rural market provides tremendous opportunity."

And just about anyone would agree that when it is about reaching out to rural India, the language had better be right!

The top 10 languages spoken in the world

10. French -- Number of speakers: 129 million

Often called the most romantic language in the world, French is spoken in tons of countries, including Belgium, Canada, Rwanda, Cameroon, and Haiti. Oh, and France too. We're actually very lucky that French is so popular, because without it, we might have been stuck with Dutch Toast, Dutch Fries, and Dutch kissing (ew!).

To say "hello" in French, say "Bonjour" (bone-JOOR).

 9. Malay—Indonesian -- Number of speakers: 159 million

Malay-Indonesian is spoken - surprise - in Malaysia and Indonesia. Actually, we kinda fudged the numbers on this one because there are many dialects of Malay, the most popular of which is Indonesian. But they're all pretty much based on the same root language, which makes it the ninth most-spoken in the world.Indonesia is a fascinating place; a nation made up of over 13,000 islands it is the sixth most populated country in the world. Malaysia borders on two of the larger parts of Indonesia (including the island of Borneo), and is mostly known for its capital city of Kuala Lumpur.

To say "hello" in Indonesian, say "Selamat pagi" (se-LA-maht PA-gee).

8. Portuguese -- Number of speakers: 191 million

Think of Portuguese as the little language that could. In the 12th Century, Portugal won its independence from Spain and expanded all over the world with the help of its famous explorers like Vasco da Gama and Prince Henry the Navigator. (Good thing Henry became a navigator . . . could you imagine if a guy named "Prince Henry the Navigator" became a florist?) Because Portugal got in so early on the exploring game, the language established itself all over the world, especially in Brazil (where it's the national language), Macau, Angola, Venezuela, and Mozambique.

To say "hello" in Portuguese, say "Bom dia" (bohn DEE-ah).

  

7. Bengali -- Number of speakers: 211 million

In Bangladesh, a country of 120+ million people, just about everybody speaks Bengali. And because Bangladesh is virtually surrounded by India (where the population is growing so fast, just breathing the air can get you pregnant), the number of Bengali speakers in the world is much higher than most people would expect.

To say "hello" in Bengali, say "Ei Je" (EYE-jay).

  

6. Arabic -- Number of speakers: 246 million

Arabic, one of the world's oldest languages, is spoken in the Middle East, with speakers found in countries such as Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Iraq, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, and Egypt. Furthermore, because Arabic is the language of the Koran, millions of Muslims in other countries speak Arabic as well. So many people have a working knowledge of Arabic, in fact, that in 1974 it was made the sixth official language of the United Nations.

To say "hello" in Arabic, say "Al salaam a'alaykum" (Ahl sah-LAHM ah ah-LAY-koom) .

5. Russian -- Number of speakers: 277 million

Mikhail Gorbachev, Boris Yeltsin, and Yakov Smirnoff are among the millions of Russian speakers out there. Sure, we used to think of them as our Commie enemies. Now we think of them as our Commie friends. One of the six languages in the UN, Russian is spoken not only in the Mother Country, but also in Belarus, Kazakhstan, and the U.S. (to name just a few places).

To say "hello" in Russian, say "Zdravstvuite" (ZDRAST-vet- yah).

4. Spanish -- Number of speakers: 392 million

Aside from all of those kids who take it in high school, Spanish is spoken in just about every South American and Central American country, not to mention Spain, Cuba, and the U.S. There is a particular interest in Spanish in the U.S., as many English words are borrowed from the language, including: tornado, bonanza, patio, quesadilla, enchilada, and taco grande supreme.

To say "hello" in Spanish, say "Hola" (OH-la).

3. Hindustani -- Number of speakers: 497 million

Hindustani is the primary language of India's crowded population, and it encompasses a huge number of dialects (of which the most commonly spoken is Hindi). While many predict that the population of India will soon surpass that of China, the prominence of English in India prevents Hindustani from surpassing the most popular language in the world. If you're interested in learning a little Hindi, there's a very easy way: rent an Indian movie. The film industry in India is the most prolific in the world, making thousands of action/romance/ musicals every year.

To say "hello" in Hindustani, say "Namaste" (Nah-MAH-stay) .

2. English -- Number of speakers: 508 million

While English doesn't have the most speakers, it is the official language of more countries than any other language. Its speakers hail from all around the world, including the U.S., Australia, England, Zimbabwe, the Caribbean, Hong Kong, South Africa, and Canada. We'd tell you more about English, but you probably feel pretty comfortable with the language already. Let's just move on to the most popular language in the world.

To say "hello" in English, say "What's up, freak?" (watz-UP-freek) .

1. Mandarin -- Number of speakers: 1 billion+

Surprise, surprise, the most widely spoken language on the planet is based in the most populated country on the planet, China. Beating second-place English by a 2 to 1 ratio, but don't let that lull you into thinking that Mandarin is easy to learn. Speaking Mandarin can be really tough, because each word can be pronounced in four ways (or "tones"), and a beginner will invariably have trouble distinguishing one tone from another. But if over a billion people could do it, so could you. Try saying hello!

To say "hello" in Mandarin, say "Ni hao" (Nee HaOW). ("Hao" is pronounced as one syllable, but the tone requires that you let your voice drop midway, and then raise it again at the end.)