Govt plans to set up national institute for translation

A panel led by former Indian Space Research Organisation chief K Kasturirangan submitted the draft NEP to the Union Human Resource Development (HRD) minister Ramesh Pokhriyal in May

The Centre is planning to set up an Indian Institute of Translation and Interpretation (IITI) in line with a recommendation for it in the draft New Education Policy (NEP), according to officials aware of the development.

Representative (HT file)

A panel led by former Indian Space Research Organisation chief K Kasturirangan submitted the draft NEP to the Union Human Resource Development (HRD) minister Ramesh Pokhriyal in May. It recommended that an IITI be established as a unit of one of the existing national-level institutions or a central university in collaboration with the states.

The recommendation came three years after a parliamentary standing committee in 2016 highlighted “gross understaffing” in the ministry of external affairs (MEA)’s interpreter cadre despite an increase in India’s global outreach. The Cabinet Secretariat subsequently in August last year held a meeting of top HRD ministry and MEA officials to review the shortage of interpreters.

Officials say that there is a growing demand for translators in booming sectors like e-commerce and medical tourism. A bulk of 4.95 lakh patients, who came to India in 2017, were from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Iraq, Iran, Uzbekistan, and Russia, according to government data. Most of them hired interpreters in places like Gurugram. HT in October last year reported that the interpreters earned between ₹20,000 and ₹80,000 depending on the number of languages known.

The official added that the HRD ministry is giving final touches to the NEP and it could be sent the Union cabinet for approval soon. “The NEP will pave the way for the much-needed IITI,” the official said.

The draft NEP has suggested that an IITI should be equipped with the state-of-the-art equipment to enable it to use the latest processes and adopt modern approaches to translations. An IITI should have multilingual experts from across the country to help promote all Indian languages, it said. “In particular, through IITI, all NCERT [National Council of Educational Research and Training]-developed textbooks and nationally recommended teaching-learning materials will be made available in all major Indian languages,” the draft NEP said.

The officials cited above said that the HRD ministry set up a panel to chart out a road map for meeting the demand for interpreters after the August 2018 that the Cabinet Secretariate had called. He added that the panel will deliberate on how the government can help meet the demand for interpreters.

HT in January reported that the panel was formed after the government took note of the shortage of interpreters at the highest level.