International Webinar by IIT Kharagpur on Indian Knowledge Systems to Explore Revival of Indian Scientific Heritage Studies in Technical Institutes

Biswabrata Goswami

Hummingbird News

KHARAGPUR, 4 NOV: IIT Kharagpur is organizing an international webinar on Indian Knowledge Systems from November 6-8, 2020. Titled BharataTirtha after Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore poem, the webinar aims to trace the philosophical and scientific heritage of India and make progress towards the future of Indology and its application to the contemporary human world in correlation with the physical, economic, environmental, and social sphere of human life.

The webinar shall be commensurate with India’s current National Education Policy (NEP) to best position India’s scientific heritage within the ambit of the pursuit of advanced science and technology.

It will witness talks by international stalwarts pioneering in Indic studies including Arthashastra (Economics), Sanskrit for Natural Language Processing, Vedic and Ancient Indian Mathematics - Numeral System, Bijaganita and Jyamiti, Rasayana (Chemical Sciences), Ayurveda (Biological Sciences), Jyotir-tathaMahajagatikaVidya (Positional and Astronomical Sciences), PrakritiVidya (Terrestrial/ Material Sciences/ Ecology and Atmospheric Sciences) and NandanaTathyatathaVastuVidya (Archaeology, Iconography and Architecture).

Shri Ramesh PokhriyalNishank, Hon’ble ShikshaMantri will be present as the Chief Guest. He will be joined by Shri Sanjay Dhotre, Hon’ble MoS, Education Ministry and Shri Amit Khare, Secretary Higher Education, Govt. of India, as the guests of honour.

Talking about the way forward for the IITs in the subject area of Indian Knowledge Systems, Director, IIT Kharagpur Prof. Virendra K Tewari remarked on the need to create and promote an Independent Center of Indian Knowledge Systems to revive the interest of students and faculty in Indian heritage and recreate a comprehensive and positive atmosphere of research, and outreach to humanity as a whole. “The webinar which shall be the first among a long series of subsequent ones will create a comprehensive knowledge base and further promote an international policy of Indology. This is in the lines of the several firsts we have achieved in various scientific and technological progress of our nation which has led to us becoming an Institute of Eminence,” he said.

The speakers include Shri Sanjeev Sanyal, Principal Economic Advisor, Govt. of India and Dr. Deepa Sankar, Chief of Education, UNICEF, Uzbekistan (Europe and Central Asia Region) on Arthashastra, Prof. Gérard Huet, National Institute for Research in Computer Science and Automation, France and Prof. Amba Kulkarni, Department of Sanskrit Studies, University of Hyderabad on Sanskrit for Natural Language Processing, Prof. Clemency Montelle, University of Canterbury, New Zealand and Prof. K. Ramasubramanian, IIT Bombay on Vedic and Ancient Indian Mathematics, Prof. B. M. Deb, Visva-Bharati, Santiniketan and Prof. Samaresh Bhattacharya, Jadavpur University, Kolkata on Bharatiya Rasayan, Dr. P. Rammanohar, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Coimbatore and Dr. MitaliMukerji, Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology, New Delhi on Ayurveda, Prof. Mayank N. Vahia, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai and Prof. Amitabha Ghosh, Former Director, IIT Kharagpur on Positional and Astronomical Sciences, Prof. Arunendu Banerjee, Visva-bharati, Santiniketan and RabindraBharati University and Prof. OmkarnathMohanty, IIT Bhubaneswar on Terrestrial/ Material Ecology and Atmospheric Sciences, Dr. Shikha Jain, Director, The DRONAH Foundation, Gurgaon and Dr. RajraniKalra, Urban and Regional Geography Expert, California State University, San Bernardino, USA on Archaeology, Iconography and Architecture. Among the other experts are Prof. M. D. Srinivas, Chairman, Center for Policy Studies, Chennai, as the keynote speaker, Prof. Anil D. Sahasrabudhe, Chairman, AICTE and Prof. Shishir K. Dube, Former Director, IIT Kharagpur as panelists for the session on ‘WAY FORWARD for IITs in Indian Knowledge Systems’. They will be joined by faculty experts from various disciplines at IIT Kharagpur.

The organizing members include Prof. Virendra Kumar Tewari, Director, IIT Kharagpur (chief patron), Prof. S.K. Bhattacharya, Deputy Director, IIT Kharagpur (patron), Prof. Somesh Kumar, Dean of Students’ Affairs, IIT Kharagpur (chairman), Prof. Joy Sen, Department of Architecture and Regional Planning, IIT Kharagpur (organizing secretary), Prof. Anuradha Choudry, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, IIT Kharagpur (joint secretary).