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InScript (short for Indic Script) is thedecreed standard keyboard layout for Indianscripts using a standard 104- or 105-keylayout. This keyboard layout was standardised by theGovernment of India for inputting text inlanguages of India written inBrahmic scripts, as well as theSantali language, written in the non-BrahmicOl Chiki script.[1] It was developed by the Indian Government and supported by several public and private organisations. This is the standard keyboard for 12 Indian scripts includingDevanagari,Bengali,Gujarati,Gurmukhi,Kannada,Malayalam,Odia,Tamil andTelugu, among others.The InScript layout is built into most of the majoroperating systems includingWindows (2000 and later), and mostLinux andMac OS systems. It is also available in somemobile phones and (in the case of Tamil and Hindi) inApple'siOS 5[citation needed] and higher. It is available inAndroid 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) and higher but removed from latest Google Keyboard application (Gboard) and Google Indic Keyboard. It is also available forWindows Mobile 5.x and 6.x from third parties.
Devanagari InScript bilingual keyboard layout has a common layout for all the Indian scripts. MostIndic scripts have the samephonetic character order. A person who knows InScript typing in one script can type in any other Indic script using dictation even without knowledge of that script.
The first InScript keyboard was standardised in 1986 under the auspices of the DOE (Department of Electronics at the Ministry of Communications & Information Technology).[2] It was subsequently revised in 1988 by a DOE committee and modifications were made to accommodatenuqta extended keys as well as to add certainmatras. The last revision to the BIS document was made in 1992, after which the document has not undergone any revision. This was partly because very few new characters were added to theISCII code-set and these if at all were handled by extending and generating the character by the use of the nuqta. The BIS document specifically mentions such characters. Hence the InScript keyboards were felt to be self-sufficient. With the advent ofUnicode, a few new characters were added to each code-page; characters for which the BIS document had not made any provision. In addition Unicode introduced the concept ofZWJ andZWNJ, as well as that of normalisation.
These new features had marked repercussions on storage as well as inputting and an urgent need was felt for a revision whereby each new character introduced in Unicode would be accommodated on the keyboard and a uniform manner of entering data as well as storing data would be devised. With this urgent requirement in mind,CDAC GIST involved in the initiative all major players:IBM,Microsoft andRed Hat Linux and hence in 2008, a joint meeting was organised between CDAC GIST and senior representatives of these multi-nationals to devise a common and uniform strategy for inputting and equally important for storage. This would enable the creation of one single keyboard and more importantly one single storage, essential for all high-endNLP. A task-force was created with two major briefs: