Regional languages in mobiles from October 1

Mobile phone manufacturers will have to make regional languages available in handsets from October 1 this year. As per a government order, all the mobile handsets sold in the country must have the facility of texting in English, Hindi and at least one additional Indian official language, which will be decided by the phone manufacturer or supplier.

The information was provided by the Union Minister of Electronics and Information Technology Ravi Shankar Prasad at the Lok Sabha in reply to a question posed by Kottayam MP Jose K Mani. Mani wanted to know details of the government order, dated October 26, 2016, and whether it was extended. He also questioned the Centre on whether there was a dearth of laboratories certified by the Bureau of Indian Standards for the testing the software.

In the government's reply, Prasad said that the order was scheduled to come into effect from July 2017. "However, mobile handset manufacturers sought extension in date of implementation of said order on account of non-availability of BIS-recognised labs for testing the mobile phone handsets as per IS 16333 (Part 3): 2016, absence of BIS guidelines for implementation of the aforesaid standard and Notification of Mark etc," said Prasad, adding that the government extended the deadline to October 2017.

NEED TO KNOW

• Union Minister of Electronics and Information Technology Ravi Shankar Prasad said that there are only five laboratories in the country that are BIS-certified while fifteen more have applied to BIS for a recognition certificate.