An Indian Diaspora Knowledge Network

Read the article by George Iype at Rediff.com. (January 07, 2006)

India on Saturday announced that it will set up a Diaspora Knowledge Network to enable improved connectivity between People of Indian Origin and to allow the large number of overseas Indians to partake in India's growing 'knowledge economy'.

The Diaspora Knowledge Network was a slew of major initiatives that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh announced to ensure that millions of overseas Indian workers and professionals become symbols of global connectivity and globalised activity in order to capture the face of a new India.

Addressing the conclave of overseas Indians in Hyderabad during the 3rd Pravasi Bharatiya Divas, Dr Singh said the Diaspora Knowledge Network will provide a dynamic framework within which the users and providers of knowledge can discover each other and work together.

Abdul Waheed Khan, Assistant Director-General (Communication and Information), UNESCO, has commented (as quoted by Rediff.com):

The knowledge resources of overseas Indians and its significance in the context of India's march to becoming a developed economy and society are well known. The principles of knowledge societies are freedom of expression, universal access to information and knowledge and respect for culture. A key opportunity for India is to find ways and means to leverage the knowledge, expertise and skills of Indians abroad. Today's world is enabled by information and communication technologies; and it offers the opportunity to tap India's Diaspora knowledge resources through the Diaspora Knowledge Network.

UNESCO operates a project promoting Diaspora Knowledge Networks. The ambition of the project is "to build an infrastructure that can be used by members of scientific and technical diaspora for transforming the information that is available to them in their countries of adoption into useful knowledge for the development of their countries of origin. Placing the emphasis on transforming information into useful knowledge for collective action recognises the need to computer support the cognitive and social processes underlying this transformation."