Major domestic software-as-a-service provider Zoho, which recently passed the $1 billion annual revenue mark, is working on machine translation software that will use Sanskrit as an intermediary layer. A computational mechanism for converting text or speech from one natural language to another is known as machine translation.
When translating between two languages, you must first use a common format. The goal here is to be as precise as possible. And it’s a feature of the Sanskrit language that it’s very precise and accurate. “This seems to have been known. It is not a new discovery, but no one seems to have used it well in software. And we are going to launch products using this technology” said Zoho co-founder and chief executive officer Sridhar Vembu.
Hard work of small engineering team
The Zoho co-founder is developing the technology with a small engineering team in Tenkasi, Tamil Nadu. Vembu has been working from Tenkasi since the middle of 2019 and has been vocal about the importance of creating educational and technical job opportunities in the country’s rural areas.
In the last 25 years, the Chennai-based software product company has done business in over 150 countries and amassed a user base of over 80 million.
The Zoho CEO said that the company’s growth was driven by research and development and a lot of firms were shifting to Zoho applications, which was driving growth for the company.
“At Zoho, we have always believed that technologists should practice more humility,” said Vembu on the sidelines of the tech conference. “After all, we cannot code more food, nor compile new energy. Unfortunately, recent developments in our industry amidst a backdrop of rapidly deteriorating global economic outlook, are a rude reminder of our own limits as technologists.”