Gangtok, Aug 19 (PTI): The Sikkim government on Wednesday signed a memorandum of understanding with the Digital India BHASHINI Division under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) to bring services and official communication to people in local languages.
The agreement was signed here during a day-long BHASHINI Rajyam State Engagement Workshop, jointly organised by the state Department of Information Technology and the Digital India BHASHINI Division.
The partnership will initially explore integration of Nepali, Bhutia and Lepcha into digital government services, including official communications, forms and, eventually, public services, a statement said.
IT Department chairman Navraj Gurung said, “A truly digital India should be one where technology can communicate with people in their own languages rather than requiring citizens to adapt to the language of technology.”
Gurung underlined the potential of the initiative for people in rural and remote areas, where language can still pose a barrier to accessing government services.
He also called on the younger generation to play a role in preserving Sikkim’s languages while embracing new technology.
IT secretary Bimal Rai said language remained a major gap in efforts to make digital governance genuinely accessible.
He said the partnership would seek to make government information and services available in languages spoken by people in Sikkim, urging departments such as Health, Education, Agriculture, Rural Development and Urban Development to actively participate in the initiative.
Digital India BHASHINI Division CEO Amitabh Nag demonstrated the platform’s capabilities, delivering his address in English while using BHASHINI for live translation into Nepali.
Nag said artificial intelligence and language technologies could help ensure that language did not become a barrier to digital opportunities.
Farmers, he said, should be able to access knowledge without knowing English, tourists should be able to explore Sikkim without language barriers and citizens should be able to interact with the government in their own languages.
IT Department director Prem Vijay Basnet said the MoU was the culmination of nearly a year of preparation, but stressed that the real challenge would be implementation.
The state will initially adopt a gradual approach, focusing on a limited number of services and languages before expanding the programme.
The workshop also featured technical sessions on BHASHINI’s National Hub for Language Technology, architecture, APIs and integration capabilities. Participants were introduced to applications covering translation, transcription, speech-to-speech and video translation.
