Author: Editor

National seminar held at Eastern Karbi Anglong college in collaboration with ABILAC

A two-Day national seminar on ‘Recent Trends in Inclusive Development and Self-Reliant India’ has been held by the Internal Quality Assurance Cell of Eastern Karbi Anglong College located at Bokajan, Karbi Anglong, in collaboration with the ABILAC, Rajaduar, North Guwahati on the 8th and 9th February, 2024. A total of 40 papers on topics relevant to the themes and sub-themes of the seminar were presented by researchers and faculty members from different colleges all across the country during both the days.  Dr. Dharamsing Teron (Ph.D Honoris Causa, Gauhati University) delivered the keynote speech on ‘Exlopring Karbi Anglong’. Prof. Dilip Kumar Kalita, Director, ABILAC along with his colleagues Dr. Karuna Kanta Kakati and Dr. Palash Kumar Nath attended the first technical session of the conference. Prof. Kalita, in his speech as the Guest of Honour encouraged the researchers to engage in innovative research contributing towards the cause of self-reliant India. If each one of us can become self-reliant, he says, it will automatically make our nation self-reliant and strong. Dr. Karuna Kakati chaired the technical session while Dr. Palash kumar Nath delivered a talk as the invited speaker on ‘Quality Education and Atmanirbhar Bharat’.

Workshop on ‘Future-Ready Dictionary Development’

Since its inception, ABILAC has been striving towards the development and strengthening the indigenous languages of this region. To this end, ABILAC has produced a number of trilingual dictionaries of some these languages.

Of late, keeping in mind the overwhelming use of digital medium by all age groups of people, and also due to the constant development of digital technologies, ABILAC has decided and has already acted upon the preparation and production of online dictionaries with searchable database.

In this connection, ABILAC held a 4-day workshop on ‘Future-Ready Dictionary Development’ in collaboration with Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (IGNCA) North East Region which was held at the headquarters of ABILAC  located at Rajaduar, North Guwahati from 22nd to 25th August, 2023. Members of Mising, Tiwa, Deori and Sumi Communities along with a few research scholars were imparted basic understanding on the preparation of Digital dictionary by Dr. Kellen Parker Van Dam from the University of Zurich in Switzerland having expertise in the production of digital dictionary. He was assisted by Dr. Palash Kumar Nath, Coordinator, Online Dictionary Programme, ABILAC. The community members under the supervision of the Dr. Parker gained practical hands-on experience towards production of digital dictionaries in their respective languages. By the end of the workshop members of each of these communities were able to bring out sample dictionaries in their respective languages. This workshop started with a brief inaugural session which was graced by, among others, Sri Suresh Goduka, Regional Director, IGNCA and Prof. Dilip Kumar Kalita, Director ABILAC, Dr. Karuna Kanta Kakati, Associate professor, ABILAC, participating community members, research scholars and other staff of from both the institutes. The workshop was successfully concluded on the 25th of August, 2023 with a brief valedictory session where the participants were presented with a Certificate of Participation. This workshop marks another important step by ABILAC towards helping the indigenous communities in developing and strengthening their languages by way of capacity building among the members of these communities for sustaining such efforts for preparation of online dictionaries for a long time.