I am glad to know that C-DAC (Centre for Development of Advanced Computing), a Scientific Society under the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, Government of India is organising an 'Exposition of Indian Languages Technology Products and Release of Tamil Fonts & software' in Chennai on 15th April, 2005. It is also gratifying to note that such fonts and software will be released in other Indian languages too shortly.

Information Technology has emerged as an all pervasive technology to impact the lives of people across the globe. To ensure the complete reach of the benefits of the Information Revolution in India, people should be in a position to operate computers in all Indian languages. A step in this direction is the proposed Release of Tamil Fonts, software etc., by the C-DAC. This also points to a firm resolve of the Ministry of Communications and IT to take the fruits of IT development to all the languages of the country. I am sure, this will help in bridging the digital divide by empowering the people belonging to all strata of society and speaking different languages of the country.

My felicitations to the C-DAC for its efforts. I wish, the Exposition and the Release Function a grand success.

M. Karunanidhi