Committee for inclusion of Assamese script in UNICODE

A broad-based committee will be constituted to study in detail the computational intricacies of Assamese writing script in the UNICODE standard, Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi said here today.
The committee comprising linguists, IT specialists, language technologists, domain specialists, IT experts from universities, Information Technology and Cultural Affairs Departments would go into the computational intricacies of the UNICODE script, said a Chief Minister Office (CMO) spokesman.
The committee would also go into the certain uniqueness of the Assamese script which makes it very different and independent from the Bengali script or any other script.
Gogoi also directed the IT Department, the nodal department, the Cultural Affairs Department and public sector AMTRON to organise a workshop involving IT experts, linguists, domain specialists and representatives of literary organisations to examine the issue, the spokesman said.

The workshop would further submit a proposal to the Union Department of Electronics and Information Technology for an individual and separate UNICODE for the Assamese script, the spokesman said.
As of now the Assamese script in UNICODE has been shown as a modified version of the Bengali script.

Gogoi has also asked Chief Secretary Jitesh Khosla to formulate a future course of action so that the Assamese script finds place in the UNICODE standard.
Earlier in 2012, at the directive of Gogoi, steps were initiated for inclusion of the Assamese script in its own right and identity.
Several meetings were held with IT experts, linguists and heads of educational institutions, including the IT Department of Gauhati University in this regard, the spokesman added.