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Sunil Khandbahale

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Sunil Shivaji Khandbahale
Sunil Khandbahale
Sunil Khandbahale 2015
Born (1978-06-01) June 1, 1978 (age 46)
Nashik, Maharashtra, INDIA
NationalityIndian
Alma materMassachusetts Institute of Technology
MIT Sloan School of Management
Occupation(s)Founder & CEO, KHANDBAHALE.COM
Founder & CEO, KHANDBAHALE.ORG
Founder & Secretory, Global Prosperity Foundation
Co-Founder & President, Kumbhathon Kumbha.Org[1]
WebsiteSunil.KHANDBAHALE.COM

Sunil Shivaji Khandbahale सुनील शिवाजी खांडबहाले (born June 1, 1978) is a MIT Sloan Fellow, Innovator and Entrepreneur from Nashik, India. He is best known as a founder and CEO of KHANDBAHALE.COM, a free multilingual digital dictionary and translation platform for 23 languages in 16 domains with an extensive vocabulary of 10 million words and phrases.[2][3] The platform is being used by over a hundred million users worldwide.

He has also founded KHANDBAHALE.ORG an organization which develops language-related projects such as Global Language Networking, Global Language Heritage, Global Language Friendship, Global Language Environment. He is a founder and secretary of the Global Prosperity Foundation, an NGO that focused on education, health and environment. Public confers him with the honorary title of 'Dictionary Man' and 'Wordsmith'.[4] and a Youth Icon[5] by Times Group. He was recognized by the President of India for his contribution to research and development of Indian languages.

On 27 December 2013, he co-founded Kumbhathon with MIT Professor Ramesh Raskar, an innovation platform to spot problems and probe solutions in Nashik. The platform has now grown to stimulate impact ventures that empower newly digital citizens in non-metro Tier II cities.[6][7][8]

Early life and education

He went to school in his native language Marathi until of his age 16. He faced language challenge when he entered in engineering school. A dictionary saved him from being school drop-out. He compiled his first dictionary as a college student. He shared his dictionary as photocopies among his peer students. He thought of publishing booklet dictionary but had no money to support the cost. Later he realized that digital dictionary could be more effective.

Career

He could not afford to join computer training institute at that time so, he borrow books and computer of his friend. He locked himself in small room for six months and learned computer programming through self-learning. His popular INK talk : Breaking Language Barrier describes his journey. He developed a dictionary search engine program[9] for Marathi language. He continued compiling dictionaries and in 2005 he set up an online dictionary portal, khandbahale.com. for local languages of India[10][11] He is Sloan Fellow and earned a masters in business management MBA degree at MIT Sloan School of Management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

His family runs a local school Global Discovery School for rural communities and doorsteps bus-school project The Education on Wheels The idea is to take school to the remote students who are not able to reach to school.

Additional activities

He developed talking software Text-To-Speech for blind and visually challenged people. He developed Software for pathology and hospital management and industry automation. In collaboration with Linguist and Domain experts at various universities and educational institutes, he compiled digital dictionaries in multiple languages, which is being used by over a hundred million users worldwide as standalone offline computer software(s), mobile and tablet apps, online web services[12] and over SMS[13] platform.[14]

He wrote program Marathi language talking dictionary software.[15] Then he compiled various dictionaries in multiple languages. The world’s first Indic languages Mobile Dictionaries were produced by him.[16] In 2011 He added Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Gujarati languages to his Internet and mobile dictionary.[17][18]

And at the end of the same year 2012, he launched 12 Language Dictionary on 12 December 2012 at 12 hours, 12 minutes and 12 seconds.[19] which creates (Limca Book of World Record)[20][21][22] In early 2013 Khandbahale launched his twelve-languages dictionary on SMS platform.[23] His Languages Apps are also available on the Android platform.

In 2014 he started developing an English to Sanskrit thesaurus which will be accessible by mobile phone.[24] He has been instrumental in pulling entrepreneurship ecosystem together with Kumbhathon for tech and non-tech innovations for Kumbhamela by local human capital to foster entrepreneurship in collaboration with MIT Media Lab.[25][26][27]

Personal life

In 2000, Khandbahale married 'Sunanda', who is an electronics engineer and she works with him. one son and one daughter. His elder brother 'Vilas' is a judicial magistrate and younger brother 'Dnyaneshwar' is a professor of botany. He lives on a farm in the village of Mahiravani with an extended family of 14 members. He listens to music, and participates in biking and painting.

Professional life

In May 2014, he was selected for Trailblazers INK Fellow US tour, in which he visited Google HQ, Facebook, Intel HQ, Nike HQ, NASDAQ, EBay, Autodesk, PayPal, Stanford University, Harvard University, White House, World Trade Center, Christie's, Pentagon, World Bank HQ, United Nations [28]

Awards

  • Best Entrepreneur of the year "Yashokirti Award" by Computer Society of India (CSI)
  • Best Local Language Website Award by Internet & Mobile Association of India (IAMAI)
  • International "mBillionth Award" by Digital Empowerment Foundation (DEF)
  • International "Manthan Award" by United Nation’s World Summit on Information Society (WSIS)
  • Recognized as "Industry Leader" in Indian language Dictionaries by Microsoft
  • Recognized "Best Local Language Apps" by Nokia
  • "Young IT Achiever" Award by Dr. Munje Institute (DMI)
  • "Youth Icon" Award by Times Group[5]
  • National ICT VASVIK Industrial Research Award
  • MasterCard Fellow, Legatum Fellowship Award [29]

References

  1. ^ http://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=192458470
  2. ^ "Words without borders". The Hindu. November 3, 2013. Retrieved 5 January 2015.
  3. ^ "Young Achievers". Indian Express. 11 November 2013. Retrieved 5 January 2015.
  4. ^ "Dictionary Man डिक्शनरीमॅन]". Maharashtra Times. March 17, 2013. Retrieved 5 August 2013.
  5. ^ a b "Youth Icon". Maharashtra Times. March 16, 2013. Retrieved 5 August 2013.
  6. ^ "From Waze for crowds to Uber for street food – MIT innovations at Kumbh Mela ". The Guardian
  7. ^ The rise of the pop up city". KM World
  8. ^ "Kumbhamela goes high-tech" "Daily Mail"
  9. ^ "आता बोलता शब्दकोश". Maharashtra Times. 11 January 2003. Retrieved 5 August 2013.
  10. ^ "First English-Marathi online dictionary launched". The Economic Times. June 10, 2008. Retrieved 5 August 2013.
  11. ^ Rajmohan SOORAJ "WORDS without borders". The Hindu.
  12. ^ "Entrepreneur devises first online English-Marathi dictionary". Expressindia. March 27, 2008. Retrieved 5 August 2013.
  13. ^ "What's the good word? You can send an SMS". Times of India. February 13, 2012. Retrieved 5 August 2013.
  14. ^ "Aksharsanvad - An Interview with Sunil Khandbahale". Auditorium of Sir J. J. College of Architecture, Mumbai. Aksharaya. Retrieved 5 August 2013.
  15. ^ "Entrepreneur devises first online English-Marathi dictionary". AccessIndia. March 27, 2006. Retrieved 5 August 2013.
  16. ^ "व्यक्तिवेध : सुनील खांडबहाले". Loksatta. August 19, 2010. Retrieved 5 August 2013.
  17. ^ "'खांडबहाले डॉटकॉम'चा आंतरराष्ट्रीय पुरस्काराने गौरव". Loksatta. December 5, 2012. Retrieved 5 August 2013.
  18. ^ "changing the world a word at a time - interview with Sunil Khandbahale" Let's Intern
  19. ^ "12th language added in online dictionary", DNA India
  20. ^ "KHANDBAHALE.COM खांडबहाले.कॉम KHANDBAHALE.COM launched 12 languages digital dictionary on special date 12-12-2012 at 12:12:12". ABP Maza. December 12, 2012. Retrieved 5 August 2013.
  21. ^ "12th language added in online dictionary". DNA India. December 13, 2012. Retrieved 5 August 2013.
  22. ^ "खांडबहाले'ने ओलांडला एक कोटी हिट्‌सचा टप्पा". eSakal. November 5, 2012. Retrieved 5 August 2013.
  23. ^ "Translate Marathi words into English using mobile phone". Hindustan Times. 5 August 2013. Retrieved 5 August 2013.
  24. ^ "Soon, learn sanskrit via your cellphone". Hindustan Times.
  25. ^ "KumbhaThon: MIT team visits Nashik to help for Kumbhmela". DNA.
  26. ^ "India's Kumbhamela is incubator for smart city ideas" THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
  27. ^ "Kumbhathon to focus on tech - Sunil Khandbahale Times of India
  28. ^ "Trailblazers 2014 INK Talks
  29. ^ Master Card Fellow, Legatum Fellowship Award
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