Samsung adopts vernacular content

NEW DELHI, INDIA: Given the role of social inclusion in m-Governance, Korean electronic giant Samsung feels that local content could help in bridging the digital divide. The device maker has introduced support for nine Indian languages on its Galaxy Grand, Galaxy S4 and Tab 3 offerings.

The company is closely working with the app ecosystem and has said that they will soon empower all their devices with local content. Currently, Samsung offers user interface and apps in Hindi, Bengali, Punjabi, Tamil, Telgu, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathgi and Gujrati.

Samsung India Mobile and IT head Vineet Taneja said that the next phase of telecom growth would be driven by data. "Regional content is the key as only one-tenth of the population is aware of English language," he said.

Going forward, Taneja said that low-cost models would have vernacular content and they would leverage such content in rest of their models soon. "We are closely working with app developers to facilitate regional content," he added.

Kiran Karnik, member of the Scientific Advisory Council to the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, believes that providing access to information to hundreds of million people in India was a challenge. "The imperatives to fuel data growth require operators to offer attractive plans, content innovation and affordability of devices," he stressed.

With the availability of local language, Samsung is eyeing at Centre's mega m-Governance initiatives to facilitate social and financial inclusion. "Though there are fewer activities around e-Governance, there will be a lot happening around m-Governance within a year or two," assured Karnik.