Infosys Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Infosys, has announced a partnership with Sahapedia, an open online resource, to support the development of an online interactive web module on the arts, culture and histories of India.
The partnership fosters the Foundation’s conviction that investing in building cultural infrastructures that are far-reaching and inclusive has the ability to build a nobler society.
Through this association with Sahapedia, a non-profit organization, the Foundation aims to provide content comprised of multimedia modules made up of articles, interviews, photographs, performance videos timelines, walkthroughs and bibliographies thereby assimilating a rich experience of Indian history and culture on the web.
The Foundation has offered a corpus grant of Rs. 2 crores invested for a period of 25 years towards this ingenious initiative that will facilitate dynamic access to rich content, and promote dialogue among members of different communities and groups.
An effort intended to benefit at least 10,00,000 users by 2019-2020, is aspired to become a forum for advocacy in the area of heritage conservation and revitalization. The two organizations will also strive to bring this valuable cultural wealth to rural and urban schools as an educational tool, and use the internet medium and offline resources to enable heritage education.
Mrs. Sudha Murty, chairperson – Infosys Foundation, said: “The richest cultural wealth of India is in a state of slow disintegration – both in the physical state as well as in terms of memory preservation and knowledge transfer from one generation to the other.
"Sahapedia is undoubtedly a redeeming initiative to preserve and conserve the wonder-inspiring richness of Indian history, along with generating and sharing knowledge among a wide audience. We are proud of our partnership with Sahapedia and look forward to jointly positioning the effort as a unique educational experience and toolkit for engagement with the local heritage.”
Dr. Sudha Gopalakrishnan, executive director of Sahapedia, added: "India has, for long, had a vibrant diversity of arts, practices and knowledge systems. At the moment, I believe there is increasing interest in and a need for making this traditional knowledge available for a wider public than the immediate community and this is what Sahapedia fosters.
"The Infosys Foundation has always supported projects that promise substantial social impact and we are delighted to partner with them in our mission to ensure that future generations have access to past knowledge. It is vital in the coming decades that CSR initiatives partner with culture-bearers and researchers, and we are confident that our collaboration with Infosys Foundation will instantiate the rich rewards such partnerships can reap for India."
