Democratising IT can only be done by making it accessible to the masses through breaking the twin barriers of language and cost, believes Gopal Srinivasan, director, computer peripherals major, TVS Electronics.

He estimates that only 10 per cent of the Indian population understands English, and if information technology has to be taken to the masses, it can only be through Indian languages.

In order to achieve this objective, crystallised in the TVSE mission of "taking IT to the heart of India", the company has entered into a 33: 67 joint venture with Indian language software leaders Modular Systems, called Modular Infotech P Ltd. This accounts for an initial investment of Rs 2.3 crore in the company, valued at Rs 7 crore, says Srinivasan.

Together with this, the company has also developed an all-in-one compact Internet-ready "keyboard appliance" that offers the multiple benefits of a computer, keyboard, UPS, and modem, combined with Indian language capability in a single appliance.

This laser etched 'keyboard appliance' will be available to the masses at a fraction of the cost of a PC -- at about Rs 20,000, and can be plugged into TV or PC monitors and used. The appliance is seen to have the maximum demand in the net surfing and government sectors.

Srinivasan believes that the way to making information technology accessible to every citizen at the lowest unit cost is to make it as easily available as the PCO/STD facility.

This also makes good business sense for the company, which is a leader in all its product segments, including dot matrix printers, UPS systems and keyboards, has the largest IT distribution network in the country, extending over 230 towns across the country, and an enviable penetration in the government, banking, insurance and finance sectors.

Adding another product line into a market where the company has already made a name for itself will only add value without any new investments.

An equally significant move is tying up with Modular Systems, which has been a pioneer in the Indian language software market, and has developed the Indian language DTP product, Shree-Lipi, the de facto standard in Indian language software.

"Modular has its strengths in technology and skills in language computing, as well as the speed and flexibility of a small company. TVSE has the distribution channel, the engineering and design skills for hardware products, management skills, and can offer the new venture a global canvas," says Srinivasan.

Modular Systems has many firsts to its credit. It has a library of over 3,000 Indian language fonts, a number of Indian language toolkits and products including Ankur, an office suite, Samhita, an Id toolkit for application developers, an Indian cultural clipart, Artha Lekha, a financial accounting and inventory package, spell checkers in different Indian languages, e-mail solutions, OCR software, among others.

The joint venture will focus on developing content authoring tools, application and database tools, language computing and infrastructure components, as well as marketing existing and new products of the new company.

Marketing efforts in this direction would be in tying up with portals such as rediff and other search engines, offering them Indian language content creation tools, toolkits and other technology component products.

The combined effort, believes Srinivasan, will make information technology an affordable, seamless and natural option to the bulk of Indians.