TEHRAN – Iran has developed homegrown anti-virus, machine translation service, navigator and GPS projects, the information and communication technology (ICT) minister said on Wednesday, Mehr reported.

Mohammad Javad Azari Jahromi said that the projects are done at the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Research Center.

The antivirus, Padvish, which has been downloaded for one million times, is considered as a rival for foreign applications, he said.

The application has been installed 700,000 times on computer and 300,000 times on cellphones so far, he announced.

Azari Jahromi named ‘Targoman’ as the first Iranian machine translation service, which is comparable to the Google Translate.

Targoman provides services in eight languages including Russian, Japanese, English and Arabic, he said.

It has also begun negotiations with startups in other countries for some mutual projects, he explained.

He also said that the national navigator has been downloaded for two million times by the users, which is comparable to the popular foreign navigator ‘Waze’ in the country.

During the past year, the ICT research center has conducted applicable researches, he said.

Azari Jahromi announced that the center should provide data to the public and can encourage startups by holding educational workshops.

SB/MG