Text-to-speech software launched in 6 regional languages

To provide access of information technology to over 1.25 crore people in country who are visually challenged to some degree

PTI | September 23, 2011



The government on Thursday released text-to-speech (TTS) software in six scheduled Indian languages, to be given to users and developers for free.

"This is a landmark achievement of TDIL and team. It will help us provide access of information technology to over 1.25 crore people in country who are visually challenged to some degree," Minister of State for Communications and Information Technology Sachin Pilot said in the Capital.

With the help of the software, a person can listen the word he types on a computer. It helps user in understanding the layout of screen as it reads out the option selected by the user.

Earlier TTS technology was available in the Hindi and the English languages. The Indian languages in which the software has been launched include Marathi, Bengali, Telugu, Tamil and Malayalam.

"After efforts of over four years, this is the first time TTS Indian regional languages have been developed," Swaran Lata, director and head, Technology Development for Indian Languages (TDIL) said here.

"The commercial copy of TTS available in the market is priced at Rs 53,000 for three licences but the TTS developed by TDIL will be given free of cost to users," Hema Murthy, Professor, Indian Institute of Technology, Madras said.

IIT Madras lead the team of IIIT- Hyderabad, IIT- Kharagpur and CDAC in development of TTS. Pilot also unveiled Optical Character Recognition (OCR) Systems software which can read out text from a scanned document or a file in Hindi and Punjabi.

"TTS is available with IIT Madras. Interested user can request for it on e-mail and it will be shipped free of cost. OCR is service which user can avail by uploading document to be read out on TDIL website. The document will be read out after its processed by software. This service is also non-chargeable," Vijay Kumar, additional director, TDIL said.

Kumar said that proposal to send the processed version of document through OCR on e-mail is also under evaluation by the ministry.

Comments

 

Other News

Railways imposed ₹5.13 crore fine for food quality and hygiene violations

Indian Railways serve about 58 crore meals every year on an average. About only 0.0008% food quality related complaints are received on average. Based on complaints during the last three years, appropriate penal actions have been taken by IRCTC. Such actions include imposition of fines amounting to ₹5.13

STHAVAR: Why every Indian built asset needs a permanent digital identity

India has built digital systems for identity, payments, taxation, documents, logistics and public services. State governments, ministries, infrastructure agencies and urban local bodies have also created portals for land records, building permissions, project monitoring, property taxation and municipal s

Saksham Skill census identifies 22,000 job-ready candidates in one Mumbai ward

A first-of-its-kind AI-enabled skill census conducted in Mumbai`s H-West Ward has identified a potential livelihood pipeline of nearly 22,000 candidates, generated over 32,000 provisional job matches while revealing that 71.2 per cent of surveyed homemakers are willing to join the workforce, according to

GI tags: Scaling traditional wealth into global brands

Geographical Indication (GI) tags have emerged as a powerful tool for protecting India`s cultural heritage, while creating economic opportunities for local communities. By linking products to their place of origin, GI tags preserve traditional knowledge, prevent misuse, and enhance consumer trust. They h

BMC: 207 officials in ACB net, 112 still on duty, 68 retire before justice catches up

There are significant delays in the handling of corruption cases involving officials of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), a Right to Information (RTI) response obtained by rights activist Jeetendra Ghadge has revealed. As of 30 April 2026, 207 BMC officials face Anti-Corruption Bureau (A

The transformation trap: Why efficiency is not innovation

Every company is transforming, or so it claims.   There was a time when the word ‘transformation’ carried weight. It signified bold strategic shifts, reinvention of business models, and breakthrough technologies that fundamentally changed how organizations created

Upcoming Conferences



-->

Archives

Current Issue

Opinion

Facebook Twitter Google Plus Linkedin Subscribe Newsletter

Twitter