The government is set to establish IKS Wiki, an online repository aimed at offering information on subjects pertaining to India's traditional knowledge and culture to the public. Additionally, an internship program will be initiated to actively involve students in contributing to and engaging with this platform, according to an official statement.

"It will be an authentic library for Bharatiya Gyan parampara, or Indian knowledge systems, which will be accessible to everyone in the world", said Ganti S Murthy, national coordinator of the Indian Knowledge Systems division of the education ministry. "With that intent, the division has also launched an internship programme for students to contribute and be involved in the development of IKS Wiki".

In 2020, the ministry established the IKS division as an innovation cell within the All India Council for Technical Education. This initiative aims to foster interdisciplinary research on various facets of indigenous knowledge. The rationale behind launching IKS Wiki is to disseminate information in an accessible language for the general public, with articles available in multiple Indian languages and English, as stated by the official, Murthy.

To be sure, Wikipedia, the world's largest free online encyclopedia, has extensive entries on Indian civilization, religion, philosophy and culture. There are other such repositories as well, such as Bharatpedia, which a private foundation curates. IKS Wiki, however, would be the first such state-sponsored initiative. During the internship, students can also contribute in the form of artwork, including pictures, sketches, multimedia, including cartoons and graphics for use by the IKS community and common readers at large, the division said in a document released earlier this week, in which "oral traditions of Bharat" will receive priority.

"The IKS Internship programme is designed to encourage and enthuse youth to take up the deeper study of various topics related to IKS, preferably in Bharatiya bhashas (Indian languages). IKS Wiki must be an important tool for it", the document said. "Therefore, the focus of this internship programme is to create opportunities for students to contribute and be involved in the development of IKS Wiki during the summer breaks or anytime during the year". Each intern will be paid ₹1,000 per article upon their acceptance, it added.

The project will exclusively consider subjects related to the organized knowledge originating from Indians in the Indian subcontinent, developed over millennia and transmitted through oral traditions, manuscripts, texts, and traditional practices, according to the document. An anonymous official from the division clarified that articles based solely on modern knowledge systems, modern scientific methods, and analysis will not meet the criteria for IKS projects.