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A two-day workshop on “Creating of Traditional Knowledge Digital Library(TKDL)” in SAARC Countries opened here today with a call for a wider plan of action among member countries for the protection of different areas of Traditional/Classical Knowledge.The workshop will cover issues like protection of traditional knowledge,classification of traditional knowledge, protections applicable to different areas of traditional knowledge, evolving policy for TKDL for SAARC countries,legal protection for traditional knowledge and capacity building for creation of TKDL for SAARC countries.
Delivering his presidential address, Shri Sudeep Banerjee, Additional Secretary, Department of Secondary and Higher Education, Ministry of Human Resource Development said that SAARC countries have a great deal of common interest, common knowledge and common concern, and it is important for us to save our traditional knowledge (TK) through collective wisdom.
In his keynote address, read in absentia, Dr. R.A Mashelkar, DG, CSIR said that documentation of traditional knowledge has become an important issue since most of the traditional knowledge that exists in public domain has become an easy source for misappropriation.
Mentioning recent achievements in digitalizing traditional knowledge he said that a traditional knowledge digital library consisting of 36,000 formulations in Ayurveda from 14 Ayurvedic texts in patent application format in five international languages- English, French, German, Spanish and Japanese has been created. The availability of such database with the patent offices provides adequate safeguard and will prevent misappropriation of codified traditional knowledge at international level, he said.
He hoped that the deliberations at the workshop will act as a spring board in evolving strategies for traditional knowledge.
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