In March, the UK-based Association of Translation Companies (ATC) and the Indian Confederation of Interpreting, Translation, and Localisation Businesses (CITLoB) announced a new partnership between the two groups.

Together, CITLoB and the ATC will help member language service companies develop connections and break into new markets. MultiLingual spoke with CITLoB’s president Sandeep Nulkar about the new partnership and the state of the “booming” language services industry in India.

“When associations collaborate, it creates an environment of trust for companies on either side,” Nulkar said. “It also facilitates visibility across borders, not only for our respective members but also for the various local and common issues that we work on in the interest of our members.”

Nulkar credited Raisa McNab, CEO of the ATC, for taking the lead on the partnership’s development. Nulkar noted that as the world slowly bounces back from the COVID-19 pandemic, initiatives like the partnership between CITLoB and the ATC help give companies the extra push necessary to enter new markets in a way that might not have been possible in the last two years.

In the announcement of the new partnership, McNab said that the Indian language services market has historically been somewhat difficult for foreign companies to break into. However, Nulkar said that India is an especially exciting country for language services, as it is rich in cultural and linguistic diversity. 

Home to 22 official languages and more than 400 non-official languages, the country is largely considered one of the most linguistically diverse nations on Earth. That, paired with the widespread use of smartphones and internet, means that the country is rife with opportunity for language service providers, Nulkar said.

“India has quickly grown to have over 850 million internet users. The problem is that neither English nor text might work for 90% of these users,” Nulkar said. “Content consumption in India is not limited to text but extends significantly to voice as well as video and needs to be made available in at least a few Indian languages if not all of the 22 official languages or the hundreds of spoken languages.”