Language Translation in India; a Sunrise Industry

There has not been a recession for the translation industry in India where the sector is seeing a steady rise in demand as the country is regarded as a great consumer base.

Medical translation is currently a blooming business in India thanks to another lucrative business: medical tourism. This is a growing industry that brings around $ 2 billion per year to the local economy. The most popular treatments sought in India by medical tourists are alternative medicine, bone-marrow transplant, cardiac bypass, eye surgery and hip replacement. In the last couple of years, we have seen medical tourists travelling to India from all corners of the world. Patients from countries like Saudi Arabia, Iran, and others countries travel to India bringing with them new languages and cultural requirements that lead to an increasing demand for medical translators and interpreters.

The translation industry in general has experienced a notable growth in the last 5 years. Currently Indian language market size might be estimated at “approximate value” of $500 million and it is likely to keep growing. With more and more multinational companies setting headquarters in India, the need for translation and interpreting services is poised to increase.

The industry has maximum demand for foreign languages like German, French and Japanese as also Indian ones including Hindi, Marathi, Gujarati, Bengali, Punjabi, Urdu, Kannada and Tamil. Trade sources say that though the market is growing, the main challenge to it is that the industry remains unorganized and there is lack of skilled professionals.

Chinmayi Sripada, CEO of Chennai-based translation agency Blue Elephant, points out that the lack of professionalism can affect the industry. “A lot of linguists in the market, especially interpreters of foreign languages do not have a great command over the English language, especially if they are translating into English,” she said.

Most translation companies in India have commenced to address this problem; they have integrated CAT tools into their workflow and changed the requirements for language professionals who want to enter the translation field.