New Delhi: The Ministry of Education’s Commission for Scientific and Technical Terminology (CSTT) is working to develop underrepresented technical and scientific terminology in 10 Indian regional languages. In a few months, the CSTT will release basic dictionaries, with 5,000 terms in each language. These will be accessible digitally, without charge, and in a searchable format. There will be 1,000–2,000 copies printed in each language.
The first priority is to cover 15 fields, including civil and electrical engineering, journalism, public administration, chemistry, botany, zoology, psychology, physics, economics, Ayurveda, and mathematics. These will make it possible to create textbooks for both university and middle and senior schools.
The dictionaries will be distributed to state education boards, universities, engineering schools, and the National Testing Agency to assist in the preparation of content for entrance exams like the Common University Entrance Test (CUET), Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) Main, and University Grants Commission (UGC)-National Eligibility Test (NET).
“There is a lack of content and linguistic resources in these 10 languages, leading to a lack of availability of learning material in these languages,” Prof. Girish Nath Jha, chairperson of the CSTT, Ministry of Education was quoted as saying in The Hindu.
The CSTT was established in 1961 with the purpose of developing technical vocabularies in all Indian languages. For speedy internet distribution, the agency is concluding multiple memorandums of understanding (MoUs) with prestigious institutions, including IIT Bombay.
