On June 11, the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing's (CDAC) GIST group launched a new multilingual program, LEAP Mail, which makes it easy for people to send email in their mother tongue.

Currently, it supports Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Oriya, Punjabi, Tamil and Telugu apart from English.

What distinguishes LEAP Mail from other multilingual email services is that it offers the language option not only for text, but also for the Graphical User Interface (GUI). So, 'Logout' would appear as 'Vikalp' if you select the Hindi language. And if you are stumped, 'Sahayata' is always available.

"The interface has been deliberately kept simple. We have included only the basic features of a mail client to avoid complications. This will be enhanced in future versions," says Swapneel Raut, Project Leader of the team that developed this product.

A windows-based desktop application, the LEAP Mail icon appears as an envelope with a flash of lightning. Double-click the icon and select a language. Next, select a keyboard layout. You can use the English keyboard to compose a message in any Indian language, by typing the word phonetically (as it is spoken), using English characters. For example, 'action' would have to be written as 'akshan', 'mail' as 'mel' and 'hi' as 'haay'.

Through examples, a 'typing tutor' helps you master typing Indian languages characters that feature 'maatraas'. Those who find the phonetic option too difficult can write messages by clicking on the characters displayed on an onscreen keyboard. You can even print Indian language emails. And it supports HTML message formats too.

The language-sensitive editor of LEAP Mail supports bilingual text. So you can now type a message in any Indian language, coupled with a sprinkling of English. Useful features for a society like ours, where no language has escaped the English touch.

The interface is clean and user-friendly, with the left pane showing the number of new mails, total and unread mail.

LEAP Mail can co-exist with any other email clients, like Outlook Express, Eudora, Netscape Messenger etc, or can be configured as a companion to these. It also offers the facility of managing multiple user accounts on one PC.

Another nice feature of LEAP Mail is transliteration of text, which means a message you type in Gujarati can be automatically converted to Marathi when you change the language option.

"Ex-Prime Minister Deve Gowda used this facility. His speech would be written in Kannada script, but would be read out in English," smiles Swapneel.

How is this possible?

"English characters occupy ASCII codes 0 to 127," explains Swapneel. "We have allowed Indian language characters to occupy ISCII codes 128 to 255 such that a particular letter in any language would occupy the same position. The software simply checks for the ISCII code of the character and rebuilds the sentence during transliteration," he says.

Recipients, whether they use POP3 accounts provided by their ISPs or web-based accounts like Rediffmail, do not require LEAP Mail on their machine. Every email goes out with instructions on how to read the message. It usually requires downloading some components and changing a few settings.

All that the recipient requires is Internet Explorer 4.0 and above, or Netscape 4.x.

Swapneel thinks this product has no limitations because of its simplicity. "Anyone who has basic knowledge of a computer and a mouse can use LEAP Mail easily," he says.

However, not everyone may be able to afford it: For LEAP Mail will cost Rs 5000 per license, though this can vary depending on volume, corporate licence etc, according to Anahita Rane, Head of Corporate Communications, CDAC.

The software comes with an instruction manual, CD, keyboard stickers and registration card.

It was developed initially to provide the Indian Railways and Bharat Petroleum with a vernacular email alternative. "Government bodies need to communicate official matters in regional languages. It was in fact a requirement by Indian Railways that spurred this idea," says Mita Karajagi, Team Co-ordinator for the GIST group that developed this software. "It's also aimed at cybercafes and Internet kiosks in rural areas, and at sugar and milk co-operatives," she adds.

"Earlier products like iLEAP and LEAP-Office provided a facility to send email in Indian languages, but as attachments. And we perceived an increasing demand for a mail client in Indian languages," says Anahita.

"It has received an overwhelming response and we already have numerous enquiries streaming in from corporate, government and SOHO segment users," she adds.

"We are looking forward to releasing the next version. Including an address book will be one of our top priorities," says Swapneel. "In fact we are even planning to put the demo-version online soon, to generate more feedback."

So keep an eye out on this page for the demo version.

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