MBM Idea X 2023: Promotion and Preservation of the Indigenous Languages

Madan Bahndari Memorial College, New Baneshwor successfully completed the first
international level Hackathon Program “MBM Idea X 2023” for the “Preservation and
Promotion of Indigenous Languages” using the Information and Technology. The objective of
this initiative was to engage large groups of programmers for the collaborative programming to
develop a programming tool to protect and preserve the Nepalese indigenous languages. The
program was supported by UNESCO and collaborated by Prabhu Bank.
More than 48 national and international teams, altogether 450 participants, had expressed their
interest to participate in the program. Among them, the selection committee selected only 13
teams (48 participants) from the different cities and was invited for the final round selection.
From 6 th to 8 th October 2023, in the college premises, all the teams continued for coding without
any tiredness to finalize their software products. The product exhibition, located at “Tamu
Baudha Sewa Samiti Hall, Anamnagar”, where all the teams demonstrated their products to the
judge committee for their evaluation and awarding.
The Principal of Madan Bhandari Memorial College, Mr Ramesh Chandra Paudel, welcomed all
the distinguished guests, judges, media, mentors and participants from the various domain
experts, who were present in the ceremony. He appreciated the participant’s for their interests,
enthusiasm and continuous coding work.
The Chairperson of the Madan Bhandari Memorial College, Mr Mahendra Bahadur Pandey,
embarked on the importance of the Hackathon program and appreciated for all the participants’
contributions, dedications and their hard works to make this program success. He added, “Each
and every language has its own culture and it should be preserved. The technology should
preserve, protect, develop and promote our culture, tradition and languages. You are the one who
should do this and Madan Bhandari College is always with you for this initiative.”
Gopal Thakur, the head of Language Commission, stressed on the role of information and
technology, machine learning and machine translation languages for the protection of the

indigenous languages. “All the languages spoken in our country are constitutionally the national
languages. We should preserve, protect and promote them”, he expressed. In the ceremony, he
committed, on behalf of the Language Commission, for the support of such programs.
The Language Expert, Prof. Dr. Bhim Gautam, Central Department of Linguistics, identified the
issues and opportunities in Linguistic and he told that the Hackathon program has addressed
many of his queries and it has indicated sufficient vision to organize “Linguistic Hackathon”,
very soon in the near future.
The Team Xenon: Xeno Lingo from IOE, Pulchowk Campus secured the first position where as
the Team Lipi: Lipi from Mechi Multiple Campus, the Team The Misfits: Native Tunes from
IOE, Pulchowk Campus and the Team King Coders: NepBoard Mechi Multiple Campus
demonstrated their 2 nd , 3 rd and 4 th positions respectively. The 1 st , 2 nd and 3 rd winners were awarded with Nrs 25 thousand, 15 thousands and 10 thousand cash with merit certificates respectively.
All other participants were also awarded with the merit certificates for the contributions.
The CAN Federation General Secretary, Mr Chiranjibi Adhikari said,”MBM IdeaX 2023 is a
forum for connecting the technology and local language of Nepal to promote the indigenous
languages”.
The Chief Guest of the ceremony, Chairperson of the MBM, Mr Pandey, concluded his remarks
with the commitment of conducting the Next Edition of the “MBM Idea X” hackathon program.
Last but not the least, thank you all the distinguished guests, judges, media, mentors,
participants, experts from the various domains, management board committee, volunteers and
students for the active participation to make this program success.