Manmohan Singh launches Mahatma Gandhi portal

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Monday launched a portal aimed at making Mahatma Gandhi "accessible all over the world".

"Mahatma Gandhi is not only in our past, he is in our present and will also form a significant part of the future that we want for the country and its people," he said.

He said he was confident that the 'Gandhi Heritage Portal' would be an invaluable resource for generations to come, especially for the youth.

"It is a self-evident truth that knowledge has to be an inclusive process, where barriers to learning are systematically dismantled. Only a society that is committed to the free flow of ideas can hope to lead in an age of knowledge.

"Our government has taken many significant steps in this direction. The National Manuscripts Mission, the Digital Library of India and the Gandhi heritage portal are all important milestones in this journey," he said.

The portal is a technology-driven initiative aimed at making Mahatma Gandhi accessible all over the world on an electronic platform.

"It aspires to be one of the most authentic open source archives on the life and thoughts of Mahatma Gandhi," said Manmohan Singh.

The prime minister said: "This collection of documents provides great source material on our freedom struggle and captures the triumphs and tribulations, the thoughts and visions of an entire generation led by Bapu".

"We are keen that a world-class national memorial should soon come up at Dandi (Gujarat), which will inspire the younger generation," he said.

The portal, which will house the intellectual heritage of Gandhi, has been developed at the Gandhi Ashram in Gujarat's Sabarmati, where its office is also located.

The culture ministry had sanctioned Rs.8 crore as a corpus fund to the Sabarmati Ashram Preservation and Memorial Trust (SAPMT), Ahmedabad, to create the portal. The trust would earn about Rs.75 lakh as annual interest to run and maintain the portal.