University Grants Commission (UGC) chairperson M Jagadesh Kumar has met representatives of international publishers to discuss a roadmap for translating their books as part of plans to introduce undergraduate and postgraduate courses in Indian languages across disciplines.
HT last month reported the higher education regulator has formed a panel of experts under the Union education ministry to promote Indian languages. The UGC also constituted an apex committee to prepare the roadmap to introduce undergraduate and postgraduate courses in regional languages in disciplines including commerce, humanities, and science across the country.
Kumar on Wednesday met representatives of publishers including Springer Nature, Taylor & Francis, Cambridge University Press India, Cengage India, and McGraw-Hill India to discuss the translations.
“Each publisher will now prepare a list of books that can be translated into Indian languages,” said Kumar. He added the apex committee will also prepare a list of books used in universities and colleges and review both lists to finalise the ones that can be translated. “We will be meeting some more publishers in the coming days including Indian publishers which publish books in English.”
The UGC has sought the translation of textbooks for undergraduate programmes in languages such as Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Gujarati, Odia, Bengali, Assamese, Punjabi, Hindi, and Urdu. “The UGC will also provide hand-holding to the publishers regarding the identification of textbooks, translation tools, and experts for editing to these publishers,” Kumar said.
{{/usCountry}}The UGC has sought the translation of textbooks for undergraduate programmes in languages such as Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Gujarati, Odia, Bengali, Assamese, Punjabi, Hindi, and Urdu. “The UGC will also provide hand-holding to the publishers regarding the identification of textbooks, translation tools, and experts for editing to these publishers,” Kumar said.
{{/usCountry}}The move is part of the Centre’s plans to introduce regional languages as a medium of education in schools and colleges in line with the National Education Policy 2020.
Engineering and medical courses in regional languages have been introduced in some states. In June, the Bar Council of India constituted a panel for recommendations on introducing law courses in regional languages.