What's the big advantage that India has over China? That's easy: It's India's more than 200 million English-speaking workers.
Analyst firm IDC, cites India's high level of literacy as one of the main reasons why foreign companies still prefer to set up their operational bases in Indian cities instead of China.
But English-language skills in India only go so far. The world's largest democracy has 18 official spoken languages and 52 dialects, including Bhojpuri and Pahari.
However, this linguistic reality is increasingly presenting multinationals with a problem. More and more companies are setting up factories and hiring workers with limited English. Other companies want to market their products to India's newly affluent consumers, but a mastery of Hindi, Malayalam, and Tamil is essential to reach them.
As India's economy continues to open and grow, English is no longer the de facto language of business and selling. Yet the economy lacks the legions of skilled Indic language translators it needs to overcome these obstacles. "There are self-taught translators in India, but getting professional people is tough," says Ravi Kumar, founder of the New Delhi-based Indian Translators Association.
Nokia targets the heartlandThat means a huge new opportunity is developing for firms that can provide essential translation services, whether through trained specialists or the use of sophisticated new translation software.
When a global pharmaceutical company set up its plant in India a few months ago, most of the local workers it hired did not know English. So it hired an American outsourcing specialist, Mumbai-based Lionbridge Technologies, to draw up an e-learning and safety manual in the local language of Hindi.
"There's great demand for localization in India, but almost no supply of translators," says Robin Lloyd, vice-president of Lionbridge India, which began offering Indian language translations only a couple of years ago.
When Finnish handset maker Nokia wanted to reach out to India's heartland, it developed 10 local language interfaces on its mobile phones. All its manuals had to be translated into the local languages. And a year ago, when Google and Microsoft decided to make the world's information available to local Indians, it wasn't just a question of translating their existing English content, but developing new content. Launched in January, Microsoft's Vista operating system is already available in nine Indian languages, including Tamil, Kannada, and Telugu.
MSN India believes that developing local language content is key to growth. "We have to go where our advertisers go," says Jaspreet Bindra, MSN's country manager.
Meanwhile, the big advertisers like Motorola and Hewlett-Packard are seeking consumers in the hinterland. So much so that even as English language print and television media are booming, the top five most-read publications are still regional and published in Hindi, Malayalam, and Gujarati. And the regional-language television channels continue to score over their English counterparts by a wide margin.
Developing standards for translatorsToday, while Google's toolbar and menu appear in five Indian languages, Google search is available in at least eight.
"As we relate to Indian users, we have to address two central issues: How do we organize all of India's information, and how do we make it accessible and useful to Indians," says Prasad Ram, research and development head at Google India's headquarters in Hyderabad.
Such concerns weren't always so pressing. Until quite recently, companies hired a neighborhood translator with fluency in two or more Indian languages. Now casual language skills are no longer enough, and the demand for professional translators is overwhelming.
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Dear Sirs,
Thanks to a thorough knowledge of French language (France and ex-colonies) I am willing to submit my services for targeted translations from English into French - (or Italian as well).
Technical and business background for more than 50 years in this field.
Best regards.
Posted by Mario Todeschini on Sunday, July 29 2007 07:01 AM