President of Patriots Forum, D.C. Nath was superannuated in January, 1995, as the Special Director, Intelligence Bureau, D.C. Nath (IPS-1960) was associated with the International Institute of Security and Safety Management (IISSM), headquartered in New Delhi, for over 14 years, first as the Executive President & CEO and then as the President & Director General, between February, 1997 and March, 2011. The author of a highly acclaimed book, Intelligence Imperatives for India, Mr. Nath earned high plaudits from all around for two of his very significant presentations on: “Revisiting the Future of India” (2005, London) and “Lessons from India for the War On Terrorism” (2007, USA). He is the only one in the field, combining the experiences of a police officer with specialization in intelligence and strategic analysis and an industrial security expert par excellence. More Bio on D. C. Nath…More reliable than Wikipedia, India’s pioneering knowledge portal is here
May 2, 2016
Dear Friends,
Jai Hind!
Subject: The Sahapedia: An Indian Wikipedia.
We are sharing with you something that the vast majority of you would not have heard at all. The matter is uniquely Indian.
The Sahapedia has been launched and has been functioning. Let us read this in the words of the writer, Preeti Singh, “The country’s first-ever online interactive platform on Indian, and broadly South Asian, heritage was launched recently when “Sahapedia” began serving as an ever-growing encyclopedia on histories, arts and cultures of the subcontinent. Lending fresh spirit to the Sanskrit word “saha” meaning “together with”, this people’s platform on heritages and their interesting cross-connections has now gone online, facilitating users to be recipients as well as donors of an ever-increasing knowledge bank on varied instances of human excellence.”
It took only five years in launching the project. The Executive Director of the Sahapedia, Dr Sudha Gopalakrishnan, says “Five years is perhaps a very long time to launching a site but right from the start we were aware of the scope and vastness of what we were trying to do. The online platform had vast scope for cross-referencing content across domains. All these would be constantly linked to the Sahapedia library, helping to bring out new links across disciplines.”
More on this feat. “Sahapedia.org, which is the country’s pioneering interactive platform on Indian and South Asian cultures, took off after five years of intense research carried out on a cooperative basis, opening windows to novel encyclopedic content, images and videos on subjects under a wide range of tangible and intangible heritage.”
Some features of the Sahapedia and its contents. “Each of the topics includes text articles, images, audio-video records (still, sonic and moving documentation), maps, timelines, lineage trees and much more and it is backed by a team of researchers and collaboration with institutions, has a wide variety of possibilities such as creating content in different formats, initiating discussions and reviewing as well as sharing material.”
The future of the Sahapedia: “Carrying reliable and expansive information on multiple disciplines ranging across visual arts, music, literature, cinema, dance, architecture, ecological systems, cuisine, percussion and oral histories among others, the portal can be accessed at www.sahapedia.org, announced the not-for-profit organisation’s president S Ramadorai, who chairs the National Skill Development Agency, after launching the platform.”
The difference between our own Sahapedia and the Wikipedia was explained in a panel discussion. “Sahapedia is a unique source that aims to “inform, educate and act”. It is different to any other site as it is a portal offering rich media which includes text, images and videos, according to the site’s designers. In order to maintain credibility, while anyone may access content, they cannot edit or add the published information. It also offers heritage education for the youth by offering well-curated content that also includes “oral histories”, interviews that tap into the knowledge of the older generations.
It is further elaborated by those intimately connected with the project: “This site offers a multi-faceted and multi-media-enabled experience, which is richer as compared to other sites. It is more visual, has videos and audios and added inputs based on years of experience, which makes it better than others. You cannot compare it with Wikipedia, which is very flat.” It is added by another scholar that Sahapedia provides access to knowledge as well as scope to share and add to it simultaneously
Well, Friends, ignorant as we are, we were stunned by this feature article. It is not enough to compliment the hands behind Sahapedia. Those of you have the talent may really contribute and add to it simultaneously. Well, it is our OWN and is BETTER than the standard Wikipedia. We are proud of the devoted scholars who have conceived of the project SAHAPEDIA, a project of our own. The minimum we can do is to spread the knowledge of the Sahapedia
to friends and friends of friends and request them to do so on their part. Will you not?
With your agreement, we shall write to M J Akbar for having published this excellent input.
It is after some time that today we are feeling we have earned our bread by doing a fruitful work. That is, not a routine job.
(The feature article appears in The Sunday Guardian of May 1, 2016. (Copy attached)
Vandemataram,
Your sevak,
D.C. Nath
(Former Spl. Director, IB)
(President, Patriots’ Forum)
Copy forwarded for favour of action, as thought appropriate:
With the request to ensure that all officers are made aware of this unique feat by our countrymen.
· Cabinet Secretary
(Shri Pradeep Kumar Sinha)
· The Prime Minister’s Office
(Shri P.K. Mishra)
· The Prime Minister’s Office II
· Union Minister Ministry of Science & Technology and Ministry of Earth Sciences
(Dr Harsh Vardhan)
· Secretary for Science & Technology and Ministry of Earth Sciences
Dr Girish Sahni
Yours sincerely,
D.C. Nath
(Former Spl. Director, IB)
(President, Patriots’ Forum)