All feature phones sold in India would now be compatible with a local language

Although some phone manufacturing companies are already giving Indians an option of local languages in their devices, very soon it would be mandatory for all feature phones sold in India to be compatible with a local language.

Bureau of India Standards (BIS) recently received a draft amendment from the Department of Electronics & Information Technology about the same.

"It is critical to have digital content in Indian languages and for devices to be compatible with at least one Indian local language for Digital India to succeed," a senior government official told ET. Digital India is a programme started by the central government that aims at digitally empowering the country.

BIS would be notifying the order requiring the compatibility by March. Regarding the same service being available in smartphones, the department is yet to decide a date for that.

The sales of feature phones, which make up over 60% of the handset market in India, are slowly being beaten by affordable smartphones.
As a part of the Digital India initiative, an integrated mobile platform for e-government services would be ready in the coming months. This will facilitate functioning via dedicated apps for 25 key services, which would include passport, visas and the issue of caste certificates, so that Indian citizens can make use of these services from the comforts of their handsets.

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