I am Madurai Sridhar and I have been working with Indian Language Technology for the past 40
years. Akruti is a popular and user friendly software for all Indian Languages. Ease of use, constant
improvements and customer friendly policies are the key factors for our wide spread usage and
appreciation.
My discussions with the users, prompted me to think about this version of Akruti Ultimate. I listened
to their pain points. I had various rounds of discussions with the development team and then
implemented this version and named it as Akruti Ultimate. As the name suggests, this will be the
most comprehensive software available for Indian Languages.
Indian Language development goes back to the 80s, where it started during pre MS DOS days. It has
been a long winding journey. We had the facilities to work with Indian Languages even when the
Operating Systems were not equipped to do so. However the very same technical strength
prevented us from making rapid strides when the technology exploded. Sounds confusing, right.
Read on.
We created solutions for Indian Languages even when the OS did not have any plans to implement.
Those solutions were quickly adapted by the publishing industry, offices and the Government (major
consumers of language content). As there were no standards, the developers (like us) worked on
own coding. This resulted in many passionate developers developing fonts and typing solutions for
various languages. Some developers could develop all the Indian Languages and some other
developers restricted themselves to one or two languages. All these were done using customised
fonts and customised keyboards.