After adding panic button and GPS as a must-have feature on all mobile phones sold in India, India government now mandates support for Indian languages in all mobile phones.
In a circular released by Department of Telecom (DoT), all mobile phones (including smartphones and feature phones) sold in the India from 1st July 2017 onwards should support Indian languages. To be more precise, mobile phones should support message typing in English, Hindi, and at least one Indian regional language.
The new directive from government also mandates mobile phone manufacturers to support reading of the text in all major Indian regional languages on their devices.
“The central government hereby includes the Indian language support for mobile phone as per IS 16333(Part-3) to the schedule of ‘Electronics and Information Technology Goods (Requirement for compulsory Registration) Order, 2012,” an official notification said.
Key highlights of DoT circular
- All mobile phones (including smartphones and feature phones) should support Indian regional languages.
- Should support writing text in English, Hindi and at least one Indian regional language.
- Support reading of the text in all major Indian regional languages (22 languages).
- Mandatory for all mobile phones sold in India from 1st July 2017 onwards.
“The support for Indian language has potential to grow e- governance transactions, e-commerce business etc. multi-fold, once non-English speaking people are able to access mobile platform in their own language,” said Pankaj Mohindroo Indian Cellular Association National President.
Do note that most of the smartphones currently sold in India already support all major Indian languages, thanks to Google’s android mobile operating system. With Google keyboard or swift keyboard you can also type in most of the Indian regional languages.