Union culture minister launches web portal

Union Minister for Culture and Tourism Prahlad Singh Patel on Tuesday launched the Indian Culture web portal. Indian culture portal is the first government authorized portal where knowledge and cultural resources of various organizations of Ministry of Culture are now available in the public domain.

The Indian Culture portal was envisioned by the Ministry of Culture and has been developed by a team from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Bombay while the curation of the data has been done by Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU).

Speaking on the occasion Union Minister said that this project is a part of the Prime Minister's Digital India initiative to showcase information about the rich tangible and intangible cultural heritage of India both at home and abroad.

"This portal hosts documents, images, audio-video files and other data from archives, museums, academies and libraries across the nation," Patel told media.

The portal currently hosts more than 90 lakhs items.

Patel also added that the process of collecting and showcasing content on the portal is ongoing and over time the information presented will be enhanced in quality and quantity.

"The portal is more than a repository, it is a proud culmination of the melange of Indian cultures that has co-existed and thrived for more than five thousand years," he added.

The content available on the portal comprises mainly of rare books, e-books, manuscripts, artefacts from museums, virtual galleries, archives, photo archives, gazetteers, Indian National Bibliography, videos, images, cuisine, UNESCO, Musical Instruments of India among others.

As envisioned by the Ministry, the portal also will be available in other regional languages in future. The larger aim of the Indian Culture portal is to create awareness among the citizens about the diverse heritage of our country. IANS