Multi-Lingual IT
Report of Nepal
Allen Tuladhar
General Secretary - Computer Association of Nepal
Coordinator- Nepali Standardization Committee
Publisher - PC Quest Nepal
CEO - Unlimited Software Network Pvt Ltd
Director - Computer Knowledge Center
Chairman - New Media Pvt Ltd
Country Statistics
- Population: 22.1 million
- Population growth: 2.3%
- Per Capita GDP: US$1,245
- GDP Growth: 4.3%
- Per Capita GNP: US$225
- Inflation: 5.1%
- Exports (last 12mths): $0.46 billion
- Reserves (excl.gold): $0.7 billion
Country Statistics
- Current Account Balance: -$0.4 bil
- Foreign Debt: $2.6 billion
- People per Telephone: 174
- Life Expectancy: 55
- People per TV: 354.8
IT Situation in Nepal
- Established Computers: 50,000
- Growth: 18,000 per annum.
- Internet --- all pervasive thru 4 private ISPs.
- Utilities --- Electricity, Telephone billing computerized.
- Customs Department & National Pensions and Provident Fund
IT Situation in Nepal
- Banks --- Any branch banking, tele-banking.
- Customs Duty total of 28% on computers.
- IT Park currently being established.
- CAN overall body of IT in Nepal.
History of Devanagari
on Computers
- Mid 1980fs Dhaulagiri on Macintosh Operating System was introduced by Innovative Computer Systems (ICS)
- Patent of Devanagari on computers is given to ICS in view of the above font.
- 1980fs: First Devanagari on MS-DOS based computers introduced by Muni Shakya
Historyc 2
- Early 1990fs: First graphical and scalable true-type font on Windows introduced by Sama Computers developed by Unlimited
- Today: More than 50 fonts by over 10 developers all having different typing keyboard mapping and no sorting order
- Hence a need for standards of Nepali on computers
Nepali Font Standardization Committee
- Few professionals working in different fields felt the need for a standard.
- Lack of a standard was making transfer of data from one systems to another difficult resulting in loss of valuable time
- These few professionals came together in August e97 to form the Committee
Standardization Committee
- Nepal Bureau of Standards
- Royal Nepal Academy
- Computer Association of Nepal
- Tribhuvan University
- Kathmandu University
- RONAST
- Ministry of Science & Technology
Committeee c 2
- Min. of Information and Communication
- Nepal Telecommunications Corp
- Nepal Press Institute
- Nepal Press Council
- Madan Puraskar Pustakalaya
Problems faced in the beginning
- Deciding on the correct sorting order
- Correct shape and style of characters
- Identifying characters necessary for all vernacular languages like Newari, Limbu, Sanskrit, Pali etc.
Present Scenario
- Version 2 of the White paper for the standard created.
- Confusion regarding sorting order and diacritic alignment solved by repeated consultation with noted linguists and language experts
- Font shape and shape not to be decided by the committee,
Scenario cc 2
- White paper circulated amongst developers.
- Development underway to create font according to the standard in Unicode
- Corresponding with Unicode regarding inclusion of the Nepali Code table
- White paper submitted to Nepal Bureau of Standards
The Need for different Nepali Code Table
- Although Nepali Language is written in Devanagari, distinct characters of Nepali are not represented in ISCII.
- Nepali Code Table will be able to incorporate other languages of Nepal using Nepali Script.
Contact and Feed Back
Nepali Font Standardization Committee
GPO BOX 956
Kathmandu, Nepal
Tel. : 977 1 249 151 /668 /057
Fax : 977 1 249 057
e-mail: allen@unlimit.mos.com.np
