The University Grants Commission has set a time frame of 6 to 12 months for the translation of textbooks for undergraduate courses in Indian languages. The announcement was made after a meeting of UGC officials with international publishers to discuss the translation. According to the Hindu report, UGC Chairman M. Jagadesh Kumar convened an online meeting attended by representatives from leading publishers including Springer Nature, Wiley India, Taylor & Francis, Cengage India and Cambridge University Press India.
Speaking to the leading daily newspaper, the UGC president said that they have set up a top committee responsible for making a clear plan for the release of textbooks in Indian languages used in UG programs such as BA, B.Com and B.Sc. He stated, “We plan to translate many textbooks into Indian languages in six to twelve months. After that, we will also cover postgraduate programs.” Representatives from the publishing houses have expressed their willingness to participate in this national mission, he added.
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The committee has informed publishers that it would like to encourage Indian authors and academics to translate textbooks into regional languages. In addition, UGC has proposed to jointly develop a model to offer textbooks in digital form at affordable prices.
The committee has provided help to publishers in identifying textbooks, translation resources, and editing experts.
The course books will be translated into several local languages: Malayalam, Marathi, Telugu, Kannada, Gujarati, Odiya, Tamil, Bengali, Assamese, Punjabi, Hindi and Urdu.
In the month of October, Home Minister Amit Shah introduced the first series of first year MBBS books in Hindi in Madhya Pradesh. The minister has released the Hindi versions of textbooks on medical biochemistry, anatomy and medical physiology. In addition, the All-India Council of Technical Education has published 270 first-year technical textbooks in 12 regional languages.
The Bar Council of India has also established a panel to translate legal books into regional languages at the request of UGC.
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