COMMISSION FOR SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNICAL TERMINOLOGY
1.Introduction
Commission for Scientific and Technical Terminology was established on October 01, 1961 in pursuance of a Presidential Order dated April 27, 1960 with the objective to evolve technical terminology in all Indian Languages
The Commission was established under clause 44 of Article 344 of the Constitution of India as a follow up of recommendations of a Committee in this regard
Presently, CSTT is functioning under Department of Higher Education, Ministry of Education, Government of India with its headquarters at New Delhi
Twenty two State Granth Academies / State Text-Book Boards / Universities Cells, etc. are also associated with this Commission to produce University Level Text-Books / reference materials in Hindi and other Indian Languages with the use of standard terminology as evolved by the CSTT
2. Key take aways
- The Commission for Scientific and Technical Terminology (CSTT), which works under the aegis of the Union Ministry of Education, is rushing to create technical and scientific terminology in 10 Indian languages underrepresented in the learning landscape
- The CSTT will bring out what it calls fundamental (basic) dictionaries with 5,000 words per language
- Bodo, Santhali, Dogri, Kashmiri, Konkani, Nepali, Manipuri, Sindhi, Maithili, and Sanskrit are a part of the list of 22 official languages of India’s Eighth Schedule
- The dictionaries will be distributed to State education boards, universities, engineering institutes, and the National Testing Agency that conducts entrance examinations such as the Common University Entrance Test (CUET), Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) Main, and University Grants Commission (UGC)-National Eligibility Test (NET) to aid in preparation of content
- The move assumes importance as the National Education Policy 2020 has espoused the use of regional languages as a medium of education in both school and college
3. Other Functions:
- Preparation and Publication of Bilingual and Trilingual Glossaries involving English/Hindi and other Indian Languages.
- Preparation and Publication of National terminology.
- Identification and Publication of School Level Terminology and Departmental Glossaries.
- Identification of Pan Indian Terms.
- Preparation of Definitional Dictionaries and Encyclopaedias.
- Preparation of University level textbooks,monographs and journals.
- Grant-in-Aid to Granth Academies, Textbook Boards and University Cells for University level books in regional languages.
- Propagation, expansion and critical review of terms coined and defined through training/orientation programmes, workshops, seminars etc.
- Free distribution of Publications.
- Providing necessary terminology to the National Translation Mission.
- In the process of evolution of scientific and technical terminology and reference material in Hindi and Indian Languages, the Commission shall have collaboration of State Governments, Universities, Regional Text-Book Boards and State Granth Academies.
4.National Languages List in India
- The national language list, when created in 1950 had 14 languages
- Sindhi was added in 1967; Konkani, Manipuri, and Nepali in 1992; and Bodo, Dogri, Maithili, and Santhali in 2004.
- The Constitutional provisions relating to the Eighth Schedule occur in article 344(1) and 351 of the Constitution
- Article 344(1) provides for the constitution of a Commission by the President on expiration of five years from the commencement of the Constitution
- Article 351 of the Constitution provides that it shall be the duty of the Union to promote the spread of the Hindi language
The Eighth Schedule to the Constitution consists of the following 22 languages:-
| (1) Assamese, (2) Bengali, (3) Gujarati, (4) Hindi, (5) Kannada, (6) Kashmiri, (7) Konkani, (8) Malayalam, (9) Manipuri, (10) Marathi, (11) Nepali, (12) Oriya, (13) Punjabi, (14) Sanskrit, (15) Sindhi, (16) Tamil, (17) Telugu, (18) Urdu (19) Bodo, (20) Santhali, (21) Maithili and (22) Dogri. |
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For Prelims: Eighth schedule, Official languages of India, Commission for Scientific and Technical Terminology (CSTT)
For Mains: 1. Discuss why the government should consider amending the Official Languages Act of 1963 to include more vernacular languages in governance, and not just confine it to Hindi and English (250 words)
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Previous year Questions:
1. As per the Eighth schedule of the Indian constitution, how many languages are referred as scheduled languages (SSC CHSL 2020)
A.18 B.20 C. 22 D.14
Answer (C)
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Source: The Hindu
