PROFILE: ARUN MAHIZHANAN:

An introduction on Mr.Arun Mahizhanan........

He works as Deputy Director of Institute of Policy Studies, a think tank involved in policy analysis in Singapore.  He is  also an Adjunct Associate Professor at the School of Communication Studies at the Nanyang Technological University in Singapore.

On a voluntary basis,  he serves in several local and international organisations.  These include his position as Executive Director of the International Forum for Information Technology in Tamil (INFITT) and as the Co-Chair of the Tamil Internet Steering Committee (TISC).

Here, he speaks about INFITT and TISC..........

What does INFITT do for the Tamil diaspora.

INFITT was set up in 2000 to coordinate the multitude of activities undertaken by those interested in developing IT in Tamil language.  These people live in many parts of the world, engaged in many different professions but what binds them together is their love for the language.  Many of the pioneers of Tamil computing and Tamil internet were in fact not even Tamil scholars or highly educated in Tamil.  Some were not even Tamils.  In addition, INFITT acts as a representative of the Tamil world in international organisations that deal with computing and internet standards.  It recommends standards and conventions so that there is widespread compatibility and convertibility among the numerous users of IT in Tamil.  INFITT also organises an annual international conference to advance knowledge and share experiences in Tamil computing.  The first such conference was held in Singapore and the last one in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.  The next conference will be held in the United States, in September, 2002.

Role of the Tamil Internet Steering Committee in Singapore.

TISC is a committee set up by the Singapore government to help develop and promote the use of Tamil internet among Singaporeans. Internet usage is considered essential for all those living in Singapore.  The government is spending hundreds of millions of dollars to establish the necessary infrastructure for internet usage and is making tremendous efforts to enable everyone from the age of 5 to 75 to become net savvy.  IT competency has become a competitive edge for the continuing growth of Singapore's economy.  As a multilingual, multicultural nation, Singapore wants to take advantage of its rich and diverse cultural traditions to position itself as a global hub for Information and Communication Technology. In addition to English, which is the primary working language of Singapore, Chinese, Malay and Tamil are also being promoted vigorously by the government and TISC is helping this process as far as Tamil is concerned.

Future of Tamil in the world outside of Tamil Nadu.

It is hard to say what the future would be.  What is clear is that unless the Tamil diaspora and those interested in Tamil are united and focused in using and promoting Tamil as a living language, it will lose its significance.  History has shown that most languages of the world die after some time.  The new technologies will accelerate this process as the world becomes more and more globalised.  There are those who believe that only about a dozen languages will be in widespread use by the next century.  I certainly hope Tamil will be one of them, given the fact that it has survived several millennia in the past and has great adaptability.  But it would require a far more thoughtful, coordinated and sustained effort on the part of the Tamil diaspora than is the case now.