UIDAI may use Panini Keypad

The Unique Identification Authority of India may use Noida-based startup Luna Ergonomics' Panini Keypad - touted as the world's first ergonomic texting technology that allows users to write in their own language on mobile phones, including non-dictionary words -- for its data collection programme.

"Panini (named after the Sanskrit grammarian who lived 2,500 years ago) technology also supports PC and other digital interfaces. It intends to use our technology to document data in all Indian languages on the PC.

We have given some prototypes, which are being tested," said Luna Ergonomics' chief executive officer Abhijit Bhattacharjee. Luna has already filed a patent for Panini tech.

Panini, which supports texting on any existing mobile phone without printed characters on the keypad, is available in 11 Indian languages, including Hindi, Bengali, Telugu, Kannada, Tamil and Urdu, and nine foreign languages -- Spanish, Portuguese, Hebrew, Swahili, Finnish, English, French, Arabic and Russian.

"India has over 500 million mobile users, of which about 90 million don't know how to text in English. Our idea was to develop a texting technology that enables people to seamlessly communicate in their own language.

"The world is full of languages. For instance, Africa -- where the next telecom revolution is expected to happen -- alone has 200 micro languages. We are working on developing software for other divergent language families in the world like Chinese, Japanese and Korean," said Bhattacharjee.

He said Panini technology would benefit both handset manufacturers and telecom operators, as the software didn't require multi-lingual character keypads on the mobiles, and create new avenues of value-added services revenues.

The company is in talks with all major original equipment manufacturers across the globe and operators in India, expected to crystallise by the end of this year. 

Until last week, Luna Ergonomics witnessed 500 free downloads of its software per day. Post the participation at WTDC (World Telecommunication Development Corporation), the downloads grew to 1,500 a day, mostly from Andhra Pradesh, he said.

Luna Ergonomics, according to Bhattacharjee, has been approached by companies like Nokia, Microsoft and Intel for non-exclusive licences of its technology.

"It is difficult to make any estimates on revenues at this juncture as the utility of the technology is high." The company would raise $2 million (approximately Rs 9 crore) for product development and global evangelisation by the end of this calendar year, he said.

Image: Nandan Nilekani is heading the UIDAI.