Some links to a regional initiative to "develop local language computing capacity in Asia", from a hand-over given by a friend from Nepal, Subir Bahadur Pradhanang *

http://www.PANL10n.net (ran into what could be flash here) says it works on documenting problems and researching solutions to enable localisation of ICTs. This three-year (at least) partnership is a marriage between the IDRC (International Development Research Centre) of Canada through its Pan Asia Networking (or, PAN) program and the National University of Computer and Emerging Sciences in Pakistan. The latter is networked through its Centre for Research in Urdu Language Processing (CRULP).

For a link to the CRULP, in Lahore, visit http://www.crulp.org or contact sarmad dot hussain at nu.edu.pk Resources on that site include the Nafees Fonts, Phonetic Keyboard Layout (GNU Linux) and a Hindi to Urdu transliterator. ---

• Subir is a senior developer in the localisation project currently being undertaken at the Madan Puraskar Pustakalaya (MPP), under the PAN Localisation Project. His involvement includes the localisation of a GNU/Linux distro, Mozilla and Open Office.He is also an active member of the Open Source Software (OSS) sub-committee of the Computer Association of Nepal, or CAN.