‘Bol-Love Your Bhasha’: Music Can Transcend Barriers of Language
Panel discussions to fireside chats, the event will talk about forces shaping India’s internet.
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Union Minister Nitin Gadkari, while stressing on the importance of regional languages, said that English speakers and English news consumers are a microscopic minority in India.
Gadkari was addressing guests at ‘Bol - Love Your Bhasha' - an initiative of Quint Hindi and Google India to help Indian languages gain the same prominence and popularity on the internet as English.
The day-long event brings together the brightest minds in business, media and publishing to talk about the explosion of Indian languages online.
- The event is being graced by Vice President of Google India Rajan Anandan and many others.
- Union Minister Nitin Gadkari while addressing the guests stressed on the importance of regional languages
- Arvind Pani, Co-founder and CEO of Reverie Language Technologies said there’s need to stop judging people over the way they speak English
- From panel discussions to fireside chats, the event has insightful conversations about forces shaping India’s internet and economy
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Why an Event Like 'Bol'?
Indian language internet users in India (234 million) have already overtaken the number of English users (175 million).
Today, 9 out of every 10 new internet users in India over the next 5 years are likely to be Indian language users.
These are stunning figures, especially for a country with the second-largest number of internet users in the world. The conversation is now not on why businesses must enter the non-English user market, but how. “Bol” aims to answer this question by bringing together the brightest minds in tech, business, media and policy.
Who Are the Speakers?
The speakers at the event include:
- Nitin Gadkari, the Union Minister of Road Transport and Highways
- Rajan Anandan, Vice President, Google, India;
- Arvind Pani, Co-Founder and CEO of Reverie Language Technologies;
- Anant Goenka, Executive Director, The Indian Express Group;
- Virendra Gupta, Founder and CEO of Daily Hunt
- Raghav Bahl, Founder, Quintillion Media
- Ritu Kapur, Co-founder and CEO, Quintiliion Media
- Javir Nagi, Online Partnerships, Google India
- Chetan Krishnaswamy, Director, Public Policy, Google
- Ankush Sachdeva, Co-founder and CEO, ShareChat
- Sourabh Gupta, Co-founder and CEO, Vernacular.ai
- Sonam Kalra, The Sufi Gospel Project
Complete Itinerary of the Event
Here's the complete itinerary of the event:
- 10.55 am: Greet and Welcome
- 11.05 am: Welcome Note by Mr Sanjay Pugalia
- 11.15 am: Key Note address by Guest of Honour
- 11:25 am: Panel Discussion on Democratizing India’s Internet Through Tech Policy
- 12:15 pm: Reverie Report - Key Insights by Mr Arvind Pani
- 12:30 pm: Speech - Chief Guest Mr Nitin Gadkari
- 01:05 pm: Break for Lunch
- 2:10 pm: Panel discussion - Win-Win: Making Indian Languages Profitable for Businesses
- 03:05 pm: Beauty of Indian Languages - Ms Sonam Kalra
- 03:25 pm: Vote of Thanks
- 03:30 pm: Tea and Networking
“Bol – Love Your Bhasha”: Quint Hindi Event To Celebrate Indian Languages to Kick Off Soon
'India is a Linguistically Racist Country': Arvind Pani
Arvind Pani, Co-founder and CEO of Reverie Language Technologies, while speaking on the relevance of regional languages on the internet, said he lost touch with Hindi after school and English took over as the primary language of communication.
He added that major economies in the world, too, deal officially in their native languages.
He further said that we as Indians need to stop judging people over the way they speak English.
“We are a linguistically racist country and to a point we are ashamed of our languages. We judge individuals by the way the speak English and how well they know English,” said Pani.
Panel Discussion on Democratising India’s Internet Through Tech Policy
Arvind Pani, Co-founder and CEO of Reverie Language Technologies; Sourabh Gupta, Co-founder and CEO, Vernacular.ai; Ankush Sachdeva, Co-founder and CEO, ShareChat and Manish Dhingra Co-founder, Director and CEO at Mediology Software discussed ways to democratise India’s internet through tech policies.
Rajan Anandan - Key Insights
English Speakers Microscopic Minority in India: Nitin Gadkari
Union Minister Nitin Gadkari , while stressing on the importance of regional languages, said that English speakers and English news consumers are a microscopic minority in India.
Further talking about PM Modi’s ‘Make in India’ policy, he said that if India can make satellites, why can’t it manufacture mobile phones?
He also stressed on privatisation, saying private sectors increase competition and improve services.
Making Indian Languages Profitable for Businesses
Anant Goenka, Executive Director of The Indian Express Group; Virendra Gupta, Founder and CEO of Dailyhunt; Ritu Kapur, Co-Founder and CEO of Quintillion Media Pvt Ltd; Jaivir Nagi, Online Pertnerships Director of Google and Aditi Mishra, Chief Strategy Officer of IPG Media Brand, discussed ways to make Indian languages profitable for business.
Music Can Transcend Past the Barriers of Language
Sonam Kalra, founder of the Sufi Gospel Project, performed a song by the famous Pakistani poet Faiz Ahmed Faiz, called "Bol", to depict how music can transcend past the barriers of language and that despite the many "ethnicities" of a song, music represents a universal language of faith. She also performed another song based on a poem which took its influence from Rajasthani, Punjabi and Farsi languages, to show how music and poetry is a confluence of all languages.