2 new Indian languages added to Google News to support news publishers

New Delhi: To promote the Indian language news ecosystem and broaden the language web, Google on Thursday announced the addition of two more Indian languages to "Google News."

Gujarati and Punjabi, two more Indian languages that will be added to Google News in the upcoming weeks, will raise the total number of languages in India to 10.

The total number of Indian languages that are now available on Google News are Bengali, English, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Punjabi, Tamil, and Telugu.

"This expansion reaffirms Google's commitment to making information accessible to people across the globe in the language they prefer," Google said.

Moreover, the tech giant said that the GNI (Google News Initiative) Indian Languages Programme, announced earlier this year, has received over 600 applications from news publishers across the country.

Of these, over 300 publishers have been selected to participate in the programme, which will provide them with support to modernise their digital ecosystem and improve the user experience across the web, mobile and app.

"The addition of supported languages on Google News is one way in which we want to keep driving the expansion of the Indian language internet so that more and more users are able to harness the power of information. News publishers are core to this effort and we remain committed to partnering with the news ecosystem," Sanjay Gupta, Country Manager and Vice President, Google India, said in a statement.

Further, the company stated that the GNI initiative has been designed to empower news publishers by providing them with access to essential resources and support.

The programme will be delivered in nine languages, including English, Hindi, Kannada, Tamil, Telugu, Bengali, Malayalam, Gujarati, and Marathi, making it Google's most diverse technology programme for news publishers.

With inputs from IANS