Alexa kitne baje hein?

Only about 10% of India’s 1.3 billion people know English. Yet, that is the only language Amazon’s digital assistant Alexa, which was launched in India two years ago, understands in the nation. That is changing today.

The e-commerce giant informed that Alexa now supports Hindi, a language spoken by roughly half a billion people in India, as the company looks to expand its reach in the nation. Bringing support for Hindi to Alexa was in the works for more than a year, noting the unique contextual, cultural and content-related challenges that Hindi implementation posed.

Users can now ask Alexa their questions in Hindi, and the digital assistant will be able to respond in the same language. The feature, which will begin rolling out through a software update to Alexa devices starting today, currently only supports one voice type for Hindi. (For English, Alexa offers multiple voice types.) Watch the video to see her in action (Source: Quint).

In the months to come, Amazon said it plans to add support for multilingual households, which will enable members of the family to interact with Alexa in the language they each prefer. Amazon last year introduced support for Hindi language on its apps and website. It has seen Hindi usage grow on the site and app by six times in recent months, he said. [Source]

Most Of India Prefers Using Hindi For Search

A new report from Google titled “Year in Search: Insights for Brands Report” says that 70% of all smartphones-related searches in India come from Bharat. Hindi queries related to laptops and PCs have doubled while there has been a 2.3X increase in Hindi queries about smartphones and mobile phones. Also, queries in regional languages are growing faster than English in ecommerce categories like clothing, beauty, and personal care.

 “Indian language internet users are expected to account for nearly 75% of India’s internet user base by 2021, and Google search trends show a significant move in this direction,” the report said.

Vikas Agnihotri, country director, Google India, believes that the online space in India has never been more vibrant. “India has become the fastest internet consuming country in the world and the internet has now become the bridge to Bharat’s aspirations,” he added.

[Source]

PMI launches the PMBOK in Hindi

PMBOK® is now available in Hindi as well

A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge better known as the PMBOK® Guide published by the Project Management Institute (PMI) has made a debut in India with a Hindi edition. Regarded as the project manager's bible worldwide, the PMBOK Guide is recognized by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) as an American National Standard.

India being a fast growing country has taken up various projects across sectors like infrastructure, IT, construction, housing, railway, etc. Project Management plays a vital role in successful and timely running and completion of projects. Understanding the importance of project managers in India, PMBOK Guide has been translated to Hindi.

The Guide recognizes 42 processes that fall into five basic process groups and nine knowledge areas that are typical of almost all projects. Each of the nine knowledge areas contains the processes that need to be accomplished within its discipline in order to achieve an effective project management program. Each of these processes also falls into one of the five basic process groups, creating a matrix structure such that every process can be related to one knowledge area and one process group.

Google introduces Music search in Hindi

Google India labs has launched its online music service in India that enables users to search for legal music streams and downloads. It has partnered with In.com, Saregama and Saavn. The three digital music providers, hold rights to hundreds of thousands of Indian tracks - ranging from old and new Bollywood hits to Indian classical music.

The music search service currently indexes only Hindi songs. Users can search for a particular song, an album or even for artists. On clicking the search results the songs play on a pop-up window.

Google had first launched a music search feature in October 2009 for which they had partnered with MySpace, Pandora and Rhapshody amongst others. Music related search ranks high on the most used search keywords on Google.

Related articles

• Introducing Google Music Search (India) at Labs (googleindia.blogspot.com)
• Google Music Search India (googlesystem.blogspot.com)
• Google's Piracy-Fighting Music Search Engine For Indian Users Now Live (techcrunch.com)

American University Introduces Hindi Program for MBA Students

As India is slowly emerging as an economic giant, a prominent American university has launched an intensive two-year course that will prepare MBA students to thrive in the business community of India. The Hindi Program, of the University of Pennsylvania’s Lauder Institute in Philadelphia, will culminate with a Wharton School MBA and Master of Arts and the expertise to navigate in and with India’s business community.


Scheduled to begin in May 2011, the joint-degree program promises in-depth language training in Hindi; comprehensive study of India’s culture, politics, values and business practices; and a two-month, in-country immersion opportunity to ensure that MBA students can assume successful managerial careers in and with India, the University of Pennsylvania said.

The University of Pennsylvania is a founding member of the American Institute of Indian Studies, while Wharton School is a founding partner of the Indian School of Business, and its faculty includes several experts on the Indian economy and business sector. (Source: PTI)