Team Blitz India
NEW DELHI: The Union Government has decided to establish an online repository known as IKS Wiki to give the general public access to information on subjects about traditional knowledge and culture in India.
The Union Education Ministry’s initiative will also engage bright Indian students through an internship programme to contribute and manage the online repository. It aims to engage youngsters, common masses and academics alike with the landmark initiative.
“It will be an authentic library for Bharatiya Gyan Parampara, or Indian knowledge systems, which will be accessible to everyone in the world,” informed Ganti S Murthy, National Coordinator of the Indian Knowledge Systems division of the ministry to the media recently.
“With that intent, the division has also launched an internship programme for students to contribute and be involved in the development of IKS Wiki,” he added.
The idea behind starting the IKS Wiki is to provide information in a simplified language that can be understood by the common people, the official said. It will carry articles in multiple Indian languages as well as in English.
The IKS Division was established in 2020 as an innovation cell within the All- India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) with the goal of advancing multidisciplinary research on many facets of indigenous knowledge.
“The IKS Internship programme is designed to encourage and enthuse youth to take up deeper study of various topics related to IKS, preferably in Bharatiya bhashas (Indian languages). IKS Wiki must be an important tool for it,” a document released by the IKS Division said.
The platform will be in the lines of the global Wikipedia which is the world’s largest free online encyclopaedia. There are also many Indiaspecific repositories such as Bharatpedia which are privately managed. However, IKS Wiki will be the first of its kind to come from a Governmentled state-sponsored initiative.
