Creating an email ID in your mother tongue to become a reality soon

You may be able to create an email ID in your language soon as tech giants have been asked to develop an option to have email addresses in regional languages too.

During a recent meeting with Google, Microsoft, Rediff, etc, the Indian government asked the email service providers to enable users to sign up for addresses in local languages, starting with Hindi.

This move will ensure more reach into the semi-urban and rural areas.

"The Bharat Net project will connect 250,000 gram panchayats through high-speed Internet in the next few years, and people should be able to utilise it when it reaches them," Rajiv Bansal, joint secretary in the ministry of electronics and IT, told ET.

Meanwhile, the tech giants feel the leaders should lead by example.

"What is stopping our Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other officers in government from sending out emails to the public from a Hindi email address?" Venki Nishtala, chief technology officer of Rediff, told ET.

“Microsoft is committed to developing solutions that help create economic opportunities and build IT skills by facilitating the use of local languages,” a spokesperson told ET.

"The current versions of Internet Explorer 11, Microsoft Edge and MS Outlook 2016 all support Indian language including in Hindi (eg. domain names such as and internationalised email addresses such as)," the person told ET.