As part of preparations to establish undergraduate and postgraduate courses in Indian languages across fields, University Grants Commission (UGC) Chairperson M Jagadesh Kumar met with representatives of multinational publishers to develop a strategy for translating their works.
Last month, HT reported that a group of experts under the Union education ministry had been constituted by the higher education regulators to promote Indian languages.
The UGC has established an apex committee to develop a plan for the introduction of undergraduate and graduate programmes in regional languages across the country in the fields of science, commerce, and the humanities.
On Wednesday, Kumar met with representatives of publishers to discuss the translations, including Springer Nature, Taylor & Francis, Cambridge University Press India, Cengage India, and McGraw-Hill India.
“Each publisher will now prepare a list of books that can be translated into Indian languages,” said Kumar. He added that the apex committee will also prepare a list of books used in universities and colleges and review both lists to finalise the ones that can be translated. ” We will be meeting some more publishers in the coming days, including Indian publishers that publish books in English.”
The UGC has proposed textbook translations in a variety of languages, including Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Gujarati, Odia, Bengali, Assamese, Punjabi, Hindi, and Urdu, for undergraduate programs. The UGC would also offer assistance to the publishers in terms of finding textbooks, translation resources, and specialists for editing, according to Kumar.
The action is part of the Centre’s intentions, which are in line with the National Education Policy 2020, to make regional languages an official form of instruction in schools and institutions.
In several states, regional language courses in engineering and medicine have been implemented. A committee was established by the Bar Council of India in June to make recommendations about the introduction of law courses in regional languages.
(Source: Hindustan Times)
