Edu ministry identifies 9 areas of research under IKS programme this year
The Indian Knowledge Systems (IKS) division was established by the ministry as an innovation cell at the All India Council for Technical Education in 2020 to promote interdisciplinary research on aspects of indigenous knowledge.
Study of ancient Indian approach to economics, politics and foreign policy; historical development of mathematics and astronomy through study of the ancient texts; new universal sociological models based on insiders’ perspective; and recreation of eco-friendly pigments and dyes used in traditional Indian textiles are among the nine broad categories under which the education ministry’s Indian Knowledge Systems (IKS) programme has invited the research proposals this year.
The IKS division was established by the ministry as an innovation cell at the All India Council for Technical Education in 2020 to promote interdisciplinary research on aspects of indigenous knowledge. This is its second edition of the “competitive research proposals programme” to provide grants to promote research in the field.
The winning proposals will receive up to ₹20 lakh over two years. The last day of submission of proposals is October 30. The names of the selected proposals will be announced in December.
The nine areas were identified with the help of expert after taking feedback from researchers, according to an IKS document, a copy of which is with HT.
“The idea is to build a community of researchers in each broad area,” said Ganti S Murthy, national coordinator for IKS. “Through IKS, we are aiming to rejuvenate the Indian traditional knowledge system... We are trying to encourage research in clusters and broad and focussed areas. We will select 5-6 high quality proposals in each area.”
Research in some topics like those in universal sociological models will help India to show its own frameworks to the world, he said. “... There is a need to study whether digital or social media be studied from an Indic sociological perspective...”
