Nazima Mehdi

A linguist and researcher specializing in Natural Language Processing (NLP) and Kashmiri language technology, with a Ph.D. focused on developing a Kashmiri Morphological Analyzer and an M.Phil. on POS Tagging. She has contributed to major national and international projects with CIIL Mysore, IIT Bombay, CDAC Pune, and the NFLC (University of Maryland), helping build essential linguistic resources such as WordNet, e-dictionaries, POS tagsets, corpora, and cross-script converters.

Her work includes developing the first large-scale Kashmiri e-corpus, designing Unicode-compliant Kashmiri fonts, and advancing computational tools for low-resource languages. She has presented widely in conferences, published extensively, and served as a lecturer in Linguistics and English.

She continues to support the Ministry of Education’s terminology initiatives as an expert, and is recognized for her strong technical grounding, research rigor, and sustained contributions to the modernization and preservation of Kashmiri through computational linguistics.

• Served as a Resource Person at the Central Institute of Indian Languages for the Kashmiri–Urdu Spoken Corpora project (2007–2008).
• Worked as a Senior Linguist at the University of Kashmir on the Development of Language Tools & Linguistic Resources for Kashmiri project, funded by DIT and MCIT, Government of India (2008–2010).
• Contributed to the LangNet Project (Phase 2) with the National Foreign Language Centre (NFLC), University of Maryland, USA (2008).
• Served as a Senior Linguist for the Indradhanush Integrated WordNet project covering seven Indian languages, under a national consortium led by Goa University with guidance from IIT Bombay (2010–2012).

Conference Presentations & Academic Contributions Journal Publications & Proceedings

• “Ambiguity Resolution in Machine Translation: Issues in Kashmiri–English Translation” (with A. A. Kak & M. Chachoo), 8th International Conference on South Asian Languages (ICOSAL-08), AMU Aligarh & CIIL Mysore, 6–8 January 2008.
• “Issues in Kashmiri NLP”, Open Symposium of the 2nd IIIT-H Advanced School on Natural Language Processing (IASNLP-2008), IIIT Hyderabad, 9 June 2008.
• “Font Issues in Kashmiri and Their Resolution” (with A. A. Kak, A. A. Lawey et al.), National Seminar on Perspectives in Linguistics (NSPL-2008), University of Kashmir, 4–5 November 2008.
• “Handling Ambiguity in Machine Translation with Reference to Classical Texts” (with A. A. Kak & A. A. Lawaye), National Seminar on Classical Text Translation Programme, CIIL Mysore & University of Kashmir, 8–10 August 2009.
• “Developing a Rule-Based Morphological Analyser for Kashmiri” (with A. A. Kak & A. A. Lawaye), 31st All India Conference of Linguists (AICL-2009), CALTS, University of Hyderabad, 15–17 December 2009.
• “English–Kashmiri–Hindi e-Dictionary” (Poster; with A. A. Kak, A. A. Lawaye, O. Farooq & F. Lone), AICL-2009, CALTS, University of Hyderabad, 15–17 December 2009.
• “Tagset Design for Kashmiri: A Hierarchical Approach” (with A. A. Kak & A. A. Lawaye), ICOSAL-9, Punjabi University Patiala & CIIL Mysore, 7–9 January 2010.
• “Language and Identity of Sheikhs (Watals): Retrospect and Prospect” (with A. A. Kak & O. Farooq), International Seminar on Language, Culture and Identity, AMU Aligarh, CIIL Mysore & ICSSR, 8–10 February 2010.
• “English–Kashmiri–Hindi e-Dictionary: A Case Study”, Knowledge Sharing Event on Making of Electronic Dictionaries, LDC-IL, CIIL Mysore, 24 March 2010.
• “Developing a Rule-Based Morphological Analyzer for Kashmiri”, Knowledge Sharing Event on Morphological Analyzers and Generators, LDC-IL, CIIL Mysore, 22–23 March 2010.
• “Developing a Hierarchical Tagset for Kashmiri”, Knowledge Sharing Event on POS Tagging, LDC-IL, CIIL Mysore, 25–26 March 2010.
• “Synset Categorization for Synset Creation: A Proposal”, 8th International Conference on Natural Language Processing (ICON-2010), IIT Kharagpur, 8–11 December 2010.
• “Simultaneous Synset Linkage and Expansion: A Combined Approach”, ICON-2010, IIT Kharagpur, 8–11 December 2010.
• “Developing a POS Tagger for Kashmiri”, International Conference on Recent Advances in Linguistics (ICRAL), Bharathiar University, Coimbatore, 15–16 December 2010.
• “Modified Persio-Arabic / Modified Devanagari Converter for Kashmiri”, ICRAL, Bharathiar University, 15–16 December 2010.
• “Ambiguity Resolution using Stochastic/Probabilistic CFG in Kashmiri” (with A. A. Kak), Interdisciplinary Journal of Linguistics, Vol. 1(1), pp. 170–186, 2008.
• “Phonological Variation in the Srinagar Variety of Kashmiri” (with A. A. Kak & O. F. Panzoo), Nepalese Linguistics, Vol. 23, pp. 116–125, 2008.
• “Towards Developing a Tagset for Kashmiri” (with A. A. Kak & A. A. Lawaye), Nepalese Linguistics, Vol. 24, pp. 49–60, 2009.
• “Developing a POS Tagset for Kashmiri: What Should and Should Not Be”, Interdisciplinary Journal of Linguistics, Vol. 2, pp. 185–196.
• “Developing a Unicode-Compliant Kashmiri Font: Issues and Resolution”, Interdisciplinary Journal of Linguistics, Vol. 4, pp. 195–200.
• “Synset Categorization for Synset Creation: A Proposal” (2010), Proceedings of the 3rd IndoWordNet Workshop, ICON-2010, IIT Kharagpur (E-publication).
• “Simultaneous Synset Linkage and Expansion: A Combined Approach” (2010), Proceedings of the 3rd IndoWordNet Workshop, ICON-2010, IIT Kharagpur (E-publication).
• “Building a Cross-Script Kashmiri Converter: Issues and Solutions” (with A. A. Kak & A. Lawaye), Oriental COCOSDA 2010 (Online Proceedings).
• “Developing a POS Tagger for Kashmiri” (with A. A. Kak & A. Lawaye), in New Directions in Linguistics, Bharathiar University (2011), pp. 130–138. ISBN 978-81-910681-7-7.
• “Modified Persio-Arabic / Modified Devanagari Converter for Kashmiri” (with A. A. Kak & A. Lawaye), in New Perspectives in Linguistics, Bharathiar University (2011), pp. 130–138. ISBN 978-81-910681-5-3.
• “Developing a Paradigm-Based Morph Analyzer for Kashmiri” (with A. A. Kak & A. Lawaye), in Proceedings of SCONLI-3, Parimal Publishers, Delhi (2011), pp. 108–113. ISBN 978-81-7110-383-6.

• Participated in the 8th International Conference on South Asian Languages (ICOSAL-08), AMU Aligarh & CIIL Mysore (6–8 January 2008).
• Attended the 2nd Advanced School on Natural Language Processing (IASNLP-2008), IIIT Hyderabad (26 May–9 June 2008).
• Participated in a Five-Day Workshop on Dialectal Survey in Kashmir, University of Kashmir & CIIL Mysore (28 July–1 August 2008).
• Completed a Comprehensive Workshop on WordNet Building led by Prof. Pushpak Bhattacharya, IIT Bombay, Amrita University, Coimbatore (11–14 June 2009).
• Participated in a Workshop on Bharatiya Braille and Unicode Symbols, NIVH & University of Kashmir (7–8 July 2009).
• Participated in a Workshop on Survey of Kashmiri Dialects, CIIL Mysore & University of Kashmir (2–6 September 2009).
• Participated in the National Seminar on Classical Text Translation Programme, CIIL Mysore & University of Kashmir (8–10 August 2009).
• Attended the 5th Global WordNet Conference, IIT Bombay (31 January–4 February 2010).
• Attended the Workshop on Hindi–English–Kashmiri Dictionary, CIIL Mysore & University of Kashmir (27 March–1 April 2010).
• Attended the 2nd National Workshop on IndoWordNet, IIT Bombay & Nepalese WordNet Group, Shillong (12–14 April 2010).
• Attended the Meeting on Developing Treebanks for Indian Languages, IIIT Hyderabad (26 April 2011).
• Served as an expert in a Five-Day Meeting for the Fundamental Glossary of Political Science (English–Hindi–Kashmiri), Ministry of Education (CSTT) at the University of Kashmir (21–25 November 2022).
• Served as an expert in a Five-Day Meeting for the Fundamental Glossary of Agriculture (English–Hindi–Kashmiri), Ministry of Education (CSTT) at SKUAST-K (16–20 October 2023).

• Have a working knowledge of Windows 98, Windows 2000, Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7 Operating Systems and Linux Mint (Ubuntu based).
• Windows based Microsoft Office 2010.
• INPAGE software used for typing Urdu and Kashmiri.