KOZHIKODE: The Malayalam portal of Vikaspedia has received national recognition after competing with 22 languages that introduced Vikaspedia, the online information guide launched by the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology. The Centre for Development for Advanced Computing has given Vikaspedia- Malayalam version the best performance award in the sector.
Vikaspedia is a knowledge portal targeting specific country needs in the domain of social development. The online portal, similar to Wikipedia, is developed as a single-window access to information, products and services, with specific objective of reaching the ‘un-reached’ communities of India, especially the poor by catalysing the use of ICT tools for knowledge sharing, leading to development.
The Wayanad Social Service Society is the nodal agency of the portal in Kerala and has popularised the portal through campaigns to create awareness among the public using social media. Anoop Philip, the co-ordinator of Vikaspedia Kerala, said, “C-DAC has honoured us with the recognition by reviewing our activities. We have been given special mention for effectively helping the public using the portal and the state has more number of people who have made use of the facilities of the portal,” he added.
It was on October 10, 2014 that the Malayalam version of the portal was launched in the state, which was earlier launched at the central level in March 2014. “We have more than 5000 pages on various topics and once we have enough pages we will launch a wide campaign. We need more people to contribute to the portal to make it more informative,” he said.
Vikaspedia is developed as part of the India Development Gateway initiative of the Department of Electronics and Information Technology and implemented by C-DAC, Hyderabad. The team collected the award at a function held in Hyderabad.
