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Royal Library of Hyderabadi Nizams

The 45th death anniversary of Nizam VII Mir Osman Ali Khan on February 24 went past rather too quietly. The reason, no one remembered the Gregorian date, not even the Nizam's Trust. They said they observe the Nizam's birth and death anniversaries according to the Islamic calendar. The Gregorian and Islamic lunar calendar do not match, therefore, the miss.
A couple of days before the death anniversary, a visit to Chowmahalla Palace threw light on some of the hidden dimensions of the Nizam's life. Going through the library which has not been opened to public yet, it was clear that he was a voracious reader, collected huge number of books and wrote poetry. He invited scholars to his court, gave them respect and held discussions with them on a variety of issues.
The story behind this library is interesting. When former princess Esra came to know of the tomes of printed material that was lying in some rooms and cellars of the Nazri Bagh Palace, King Kothi, she roped in the services of Dr Aminuddin Khan to salvage it. She thought it would be a good idea to keep all the books, manuscripts and other documents found in Nazri Bagh and other places like Chiran Palace (KBR Park), etc. under one roof. While the collection in Chiran Palace was largely the result of interest shown by former prince Mukarram Jah in books, the material in Nazri Bagh solely belonged to his grandfather.
There is a curious twist to this story of book collections. It is not known why a large collection of printed material is still intact in Falaknuma Palace. She knew that access to the collection in Falaknuma Palace, after its conversion into a luxury hotel, would be restricted to hotel guests alone still she preferred to keep it there. As scholars point out, there are some collections in the palaces, bungalows and mansions of the rich that are only meant for seeing from a distance, not reading. They essentially form part of the overall decor of the place and give the owner an image of an 'intellectual.' Perhaps, Esra didn't wish to disturb the decor of Falaknuma Palace. Or perhaps she didn't wish to deny the guests of the palace hotel an element of pride which they could enjoy by making an occasional visit to the library there. Read More

Ancient Indian LIbraries

If libraries are the abodes of learning, then ancient India was the abode of such libraries.
Indian manuscripts reveal ancient India's concern the documentation. Except Vedas all the knowledge of eternal India was meticulously documented and preserved.
Indian libraries were called as "Grathalaya", "Pustak Bhandar", or "Saraswati Bhandar" (Place where the Goddess of learning Saraswati resides). There existed three kinds of libraries in India,
1. Takshila, Nalanda & Kasi - Universities and centers of learning.
2. King's palaces.
3. Temples of India.
During the seventh century BC, Takshila, attracted students from all over the world and had a huge collection of various texts, not only of Sanskrit, but also of other world languages Read More

Indian Memory Project

Indian Memory Project was founded in February 2010, by Anusha Yadav. It is an online, curated, visual and oral-history based archive that traces a personal history of the Indian Subcontinent, its people, cultures, professions, cities, development, traditions, circumstances and their consequences. Applying images, letters and stories from family archives (sent and collected from contributors), it reconstructs a visual history that is emotionally rich, vivid, informative and even more surprising than we think.
Family archives of photographs and lettes hold a treasure trove of incredible historically valuable information. They hold astonishing secrets, and when they reveal themselves via narratives, they become the missing links to a country’s emotional history. A past that we can actually feel, connect and wonder with.
Indian Memory Project is now also on the lookout for notable, interesting, personal and not so personal handwritten/typewritten letters (including postcards).
Therefore, if you happen to have one you would like to share, we’d really like to see and show it. However, the project only accepts Photographs and Letters from before the Year 1991.

Copyright belongs to the guardian of the photograph

Pictures & Letters CANNOT be used for any reason whatsoever, without prior permission.

Any unauthorised use will lead to prompt legal action.

For Permissions, write at INDIAN MEMORY PROJECT

Rare Book Society of India

The Rare Book Society of India (RBSI) brings digitised rare books, sculpture and monuments from the first century A.D. Rajput and Mughal paintings from the 16th century AD to Company paintings from the Colonial period. There are even posts on people and historical events. The Indian Memory Project (IMP) is more personal - old photographs contributed by people of their friends and family.
This delightful marriage of archiving through past institutional and personal records with an interface like Facebook has made "old worlds come alive". Both Subbiah Yadalam of RBSI and Anusha Yadav of IMP know it only too well.
CHASING ONE'S PASSION
Yadav is a professional portrait photographer who founded IMP in February 2010. Though not a trained anthropologist or historian, her "emotional curiosity about people, their lives, their spaces" have led her to start IMP as "an attempt to trace the history of India, its people, professions, development, traditions, cultures, settlements and cities through pictures and oral stories found in personal family albums and archives".
Subbiah Yadalam sources pictures from the online collections of many museums around the world: "We have explicit permission to post them on the RBSI page. All the digital books are sourced from Internet Archive, Googlebooks and Project Gutenberg who have digitised probably a million books that are free of copyright and which can be downloaded for free."
A lot of physical archives are lying in utter neglect. Some are forgotten in locked rooms and some are facing government apathy. In fact, digital archives bypass all these cumbersome formalities - and conservation costs - and provide easy access to the viewer or researcher. In addition, very few archives are telling of the personal lives of Indians at a time when independence from colonial rule and nation-building dominated the print media.
Yadav feels that "India's history is far more documentative in the form of literature, fiction and non-fiction available in text, than as image based archives".
"From 15 images and stories we are now at about a 100, but there is still a lot of work to be done," says Yadav. There are images contributed by TV anchor Sreenivasan Jain, of his paternal grandparents holding hands, rather bold for their times but "turned out to be indicative of the unconventional nature their lives would take. In contributor Vani Subramaniam's picture of her grandparents, her Tamilian grandmother sits traditionally dressed except for sock clad feet in Mary Janes! There are contributions from abroad too, mainly of British grandparents in colonial bungalows.

Yadalam is from a business family and has been a book lover all his life.
A chance encounter with a 7 volume set by Edgar Thurston and Rangachari called the "Castes and Tribes of South India" at his "Club's library" led him to search for the original, and to KKS Murthys' Select Book Shop, the oldest rare book seller in Bengaluru. And RBSI was born, you could say, at that moment. The fruition on Facebook came after he realised through net searches that "though America had close to a thousand rare and antiquarian book sellers, India with its rich literary heritage of thousands of years had only a handful."

Indian Institute of Sindhology - Kutch

There is a huge library in Indian Institute of Sindhology with Thousands of Sindhi Books, many of them the rare ones, on various topics. All the Sindhi magazines published in India and abroad are also displayed and collected in bound volumes. The library is being run by the competent Sindhi knowing staff. The library is open for the scholars and public on all working days.

1 Books and Magazines
In the library there are three types of books available.

(a) Sindhi books (in both, Sindhi and Devnagri scripts)
(b) Books on Sindh and Sindhis in English and other languages.
(c) Books written by Sindhi authors in English and other Vernacular languages, original as well as the translations.

All books are classified and catalogued as per the rules of Library Science. Lately the two separate sections of literary classics in English and Hindi have been opened.

2 Magazines
In this section the present as well the old magazines published in Sindh, during pre-partition era have been collected and bound together year wise. The present day magazines like " Koonj", "Sangeeta", "Rachna", "Sipoon" and older ones like " Naeen Duniya", "Kahani" and of pre-partition era like "Sindhu", "Phuleli" and "Mehran" are available in the library. Many magazines published by Government and Semi Government organisations and also by different Sindhi associations, like "Halchal", "Moomal", "Pushp" "Jahazrani", "Alka", "Sorath", "Jeejal" and their annual numbers are preserved in this library.

3 The Rare books
There are many volumes of rare books preserved in the library. These books have been collected from the personal collection of elderly writers as well from those libraries which had to close down the shutters. There are many books of historical importance, published in 19th century.

4 The Scanning of Rare books
There are many rare books in a very delicate condition. The worn out pages are so brittle that they get torn by mere touch of the hand. The pages of the books are being scanned to preserve them for posterity. Three / five copies of such books including old title page and advertisements, are preserved for safe keeping in Sindhology. Printed on best quality of paper, they shall last for another hundred years, without getting damaged. These books scanned by computer are also preserved in CDs, so that more copies of these books are printed whenever demand arises. There are scores of such books already preserved by this modern technique.

5 Search for rare books and manuscripts scattered all over India and overseas to preserve them by Photo coping or Type setting
The literature of many old and new writers in printed form or in manuscript form has remained untraced. Sometimes it is available in old magazines and has not appeared in any collection. Sindhology has tried to tackle it in two ways :

(a) The unpublished works have been obtained from the heirs of the authors. These have been printed in book form with the help of computer type setting. 3/5 copies of such unpublished books have been printed and preserved at Sindhology as reference material for scholars. The matter has also been recorded in CDs. At present scores of such rare, unpublished works are available at Sindhology.

(b) Short stories / Poems / articles of the writers who have passed away, have been searched from various magazines and compiled in collections and are printed in book form. 3/5 copies of such works are now available at Sindhology for future reference of scholars.

6 Script Bank
Sindhology has collected hundred of One act and full length plays from various sources and stored in a Script Bank. Anyone who wishes to perform any play on the stage can get the photo copy of the script of play on nominal charge. The photographs of many play writers along with Bio data is also available with Sindhology.

7 Historical Events
Related to history, geography of Sindh and other cultural events have also been compiled in chronological order after thorough research.

8 Writer's Corners
Corners of many eminent writers furnishing all the information of their life and works is made available here including the

(a) Details of all books written (both published and unpublished)

(b) Details of all the articles written by the author and scattered in various magazines / books including those which have remained unpublished.

(c) The articles written by other writers on the author, both published and unpublished.

(d) The letters of the authors, both published and unpublished.

(e) Photographs of the author with his family and friends.

(f) All the information about the authors collected from his friends and relatives, obtained orally or in writing.

(g) The prizes, Shields, Certificates, felicitation bestowed on the author.

9 Manuscripts
It is a different task to procure the manuscripts of the authors, who have passed away. But Sindhology has succeeded in obtaining few, some of them in a very deleterious condition, which have been restored by proper lamination etc

Jiva -Institute of Vaishnava Studies - Vrindavan

Jiva Institute of Vaishnava Studies aims to make the wisdom contained in ancient Sanskrit texts accessible for the world’s benefit. The Jiva Library contains thousands of rare texts, books, and manuscripts encompassing the entire spectrum of Vedic literature. It has special emphasis on Ayurveda, Jyotish, Music, Tantra, Sankhya, Yoga, Nyaya, Vaisheshika, Purva-mimamsa, Advaita-vedanta, Vaishnavism, Puranas, Itihasa, and Samhitas. Our computerized library catalogue contains a complete list of its collection to easily facilitate scholarly research.
Additionally, the Jiva Institute has a digital library with hundreds of audio and video lectures by its founder Dr. Satyanarayana Dasa. He offers interpretations and analysis of Indian scripture and its classical commentaries. Current offerings include Srimad Bhagavata Purana, Bhagavad Gita, and Bhakti Rasamrta Sindhu, with more coming soon.
Jiva Institute of Vaishnava Studies aims to make the wisdom contained in ancient Sanskrit texts accessible for the world’s benefit. It maintains a well organized and comprehensive library containing more than 10,000 texts in Sanskrit, English, and Hindi. It also houses over 5,000 handwritten books and rare manuscripts in Sanskrit, Bengali and Brajabhasha, which are written on handmade paper, mango leaves and tree bark.

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Adopt A book

MUMBAI: Zahra Vakil is all of 17 and on a mission—to save the rare and crumbling books at Mani Bhavan. So enthused were the administrators of Mani Bhavan with Zahra's Adopt-a-Book idea, that the scheme will be officially launched on October 2. The teenager not only helped design the webpage for the book project but also roped in Air India to provide free hoarding space to advertise the scheme. "We have over 40,000 books in our library. Some of the books are over a century old and there are many rare books that are not available in other libraries or private collections," said Usha Thakkar, a Mani Bhavan trustee.

E- Library of ancient Manuscripts

AHMEDABAD: If an elephant, lion, goddess Lakshmi or a rose garland appears in your dreams, it is an auspicious sign, says Swapna Pradipt, a 1,000-year-old treatise on interpretation of dreams. It adds that early morning dreams are more likely to fructify. Now, Swapna Pradipt and 2,000 other such rarest of rare manuscripts and books in Ahmedabad's Lalbhai Dalpatbhai Institute of Indology, dating back around 1,200 years, are available in a digitized format. Former President Abdul Kalam will dedicate this e-library running into five lakh pages to the nation on November 11. The massive project which involved digitizing ancient books on religion, language, culture, history, maths, astrology and astronomy took three years and cost Rs 40 lakh.

Private Collection of Artifacts

RAMGARH: A number of visitors across the country, including research scholars and archeologists, turn up everyday at the Zarina Khatoon Museum and Research Centre (ZKMRC), established on the narrow streets of Chitarpur by local man Faiz Ahmad (30), who is doing his graduation from the Indira Gandhi National Open Unisersity (IGNOU). The museum created by Faiz has hundreds of rare artifacts belonging to Paleolithic to Neolithic ages. The man has had keen interest in collecting ancient things from early childhood

Personal Collection of Rare Books

 

JANTA ENCLAVE: The residence of 59-year-old Anurag Singh - 37, Janta Enclave - is on the must-visit list of many people from around the world. The reason? The place houses a huge library that stocks close to 10,000 books. These include the rarest-of-rare books on various subjects, including religion, philosophy and literature. Anurag, a banker, has to his credit 19 books, with five already being printed and 14 being under print. "This library is the result of taste for books that I got from my father Tarlochan Singh, who was a celebrated author with over 40 books to his credit," he says.

Amir-Ud Daula Public Library - Lucknow

1882 - Part of the Provincial Museum founded-1868
1887 - Opened to student only
1907 - Upper storey of Lal Baradari, the present Museum building reserved for Library
1910 - Shifted to Chhota Chattarmanjil and opened to public and named as Public Library, Lucknow
1926 On March 6, Shifted to this building built for it, and gifted to Govt. U.P. by the Taluqdars of Awadh named after Amiruddaula Raja Mohmmad Amir Hasan Khan of Mahmoodabad, a former president of the B.I. Association
1947-Taluqdar’s Association transferred Land in front of the Library for construction of a park
The Amir-ud-daula Library founded by the Taluqedar’s of Oudh in loving & Grateful memory of the Late Amir-ud-Daula saidul Mulk the Hobble Raja Sir Mohammad Amir Hasan Khan Khan Bahadur K.C. I.E. Mumtaj Jang of Mahmudabad, President British Indian Association Oudh.
The Foundation stone was laid by H.E. Sir Harcourt Butlor, K.C.S.I., C.I.E., and Governor of U.P. of Agra & Oudh on Saturday 22nd January 1921.

Lithographs – A large collection of Lithos as:

The campaign in India 1857-58 by George Franklin Atkinson, London, 1859. Select Views in India Drawn on the spot in the year 1780, 1781, 1782 and executed in Aqua Tinta by William Hodges, London, 1786. Famous Paintings selected from the world’s great Galleries and reproduced in colour with an introduction by G.K.Chesterton, London, Toronto, Melbourne and Cydeny and others Siege of Lucknow. List or Urdu Manuscripts List of Persian Manuscripts List of Arabic Manauscripts

North Bengal State Library

is a pride of Cooch Behar. This Library has so many valuable manuscripts and Classic "Punthis" written on hand made papers and palm leaf. There are so many rare books, old journals Indian and Foreign rare documents, reports. The treasure is a cultural heritage of Cooch Behar Kingdom. The library has a long history of 125 years. During the minority of Maharaja Nripendra Narayan, Colonel Houghten came to Cooch Behr to act as Commissioner (1864-73). Colonel Houghten established State Library of Cooch Behar in the year 1870 by purchasing a stock of books at an auction sale of M/S.Rozario and Co., in London. In a room of Nilkuthi the library was started. Later it was handed over to the Maharaja Nripendra Narayan who removed the library to Lansdown Hall in the year 1895. Worthwhile to note that in the year 1882 the library was opened for public use. The Library became the storehouse of imporatn documents, reports, journals and rare manuscripts. Most of rare books and documents are century's old. It became a treasure of the cultural heritage of Cooch Behar Kingdom.
The Library grew richer and larger and became the treasure island under the direct patronage of Maharaja of Cooch Behar who sanctioned Rs. 2000 as annual grant for the purchase of books. Different Punthis and manuscripts and rare documents of Raj- Darawabar or royal court were transferred to this library of public benefit. J.W Troten in his book INDIA Under VICTORIA speaks of this library " the little State of Cooch Behar on Assam Border could be act of library richer than any to be found in Bengal outside Calcutta".


Catalogue of Bengali Manuscripts

List of Assammese Manuscripts

Old Delhi Library History

The 150-year-old Hardayal public libraryis a treasure trove of rare and valuable books, but they and the building itself are being left to rot after all funding was cut off. The staff are not paid but still go to work, determined to preserve and protect the collection.

  
Fate of Staff   Closure of Newspaper Section   Harding LIbrary   Who will Save


 

Deep in the congested heart of Old Delhi lies a little known library filled with ancient treasures.

The Hardayal Municipal Public Library dates to 1862, but few know that this dilapidated building conceals a hoard of precious books. These include a 1676 edition of Sir Walter Raleigh’s History of the World; a Persian version of the Hindu epic The Mahabharata, written by a vizier of the Emperor Akbar; a Quran produced by the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb and ancient London surveys.

The library has more than 170,000 books in six languages – English, Hindi, Arabic, Urdu, Persian and Sanskrit.

After surviving more than a century of change and turmoil, the library is now threatened by the most dangerous foe of all – government apathy. Recent changes to the administration of North Delhi means all funds have been cut off.

Gradually, the building and its historic volumes are crumbling, food for insects rather than the mind.

Any book lover entering the ramshackle premises of the Hardayal is likely to be horrified. Books, covered with dust and grime, are piled messily on decrepit shelves or locked away in inaccessible steel cupboards.

Many are infested with insects, some have moisture damage, others are missing pages. The rarer books are bound and clumsily laminated, but most are not.

The library has no air conditioning and only feeble ceiling fans, meaning the books wilt under the cruel Delhi heat.

“It costs me 25,000 rupees (Dh1,720) to bind and laminate one book,” says Madhukar Rao, the librarian. “Where do I get that kind of money?”

The books Mr Rao guards may well be worth a great deal but they have never been valued or properly catalogued.

 

“Foreign collectors sometimes offer to buy these books but my conscience does not allow me to accept,” he says. “These books belong here in India.”

Mr Rao and his staff have not been paid for nearly six months and are surviving on bank loans.
The library’s electricity bills have not been paid, and the supply may be cut off any day now.

Mr Rao, like many of his staff, has worked at the library since 1973. “I have spent my youth in this library,” he says.

When asked why they show up for work, despite not being paid salaries, the staff smile wryly. “This is our calling,” says Shameem Kausal, an assistant librarian who has been working in the Hardayal for 30 years.

Now, the library functions mostly as a reading and study space for students.

People don’t read as much as they used to do,” Mr Rao says. “Young people are only interested in taking competitive exams and not in taking out our books.”

When it was first founded, the library was merely a one-room reading club.

The present library actually grew from a bomb thrown at the then Viceroy Lord Hardinge in 1912, by the maverick Indian revolutionary Lala Hardayal.

To celebrate Hardinge’s lucky escape, a group of well wishers, including the Maharaja of Kashmir, donated 70,000 rupees to build the present library, which was named the Hardinge library.

In a strange twist of fate, after India became independent, the library was renamed, but this time, after Hardayal.

The facility has survived these dizzying changes of guard, but is now struggling to stay open. Until this year, the library was funded by the North Delhi Municipal Corporation, and received 30 million rupees a year.

But in May, the corporation was split into three, and when duties were divided up, the library was forgotten. The upshot is no one wants to take responsibility for Hardayal and funds have been cut off.

“After the new trifurcation, the library is considered a non-governmental organisation (NGO), and we can’t possibly fund every NGO.

Costs are rising steadily, and we need to spend most of our budget on civic amenities,” says Meera Aggarwal, the mayor of the North Delhi municipal corporation, in whose jurisdiction the library falls, and also the former officio president of the library.

The plight of Hardayal is not unusual. Across the country, heritage libraries are struggling to survive.

In Mumbai, the David Sassoon library, which dates back to 1870, cannot even afford a librarian. The Sassoon is housed in a beautiful heritage building but inside, its fragile books crumble in the pitiless humidity.

 

Corporates have donated to restore the building but no one is interested in preserving the books,” says Vivekanand Ajgaonkar, the president of the Sassoon. “We had to throw away several books because they were infested with insects.”

As a private trust, the Sassoon gets no government funding, and survives on its membership fees, only 2,400 rupees a year (Dh165) and the odd donation from members.

Other libraries are trying to stand on their own feet. “My aim is to stop relying on the government for funding because they can’t and won’t do everything. Instead, I want to build a strong corpus of our own,” says

Dr Aroon Tikekar, a well known author, historian and president of the Asiatic Society in Mumbai.

The society, set up in 1804 by British scholars to promote knowledge of India, has an extensive library housed in the majestic Town Hall building. Its pride and joy is a rare 14th century manuscript of Italian poet

Dante Aligheri’s The Divine Comedy, one of only two in existence.

Rumour has it that in 1930, Benito Mussolini offered £1 million to the society for its purchase, but was turned down.

Other treasures include The Shahnama of Firdausi in Persian dating back to 1843; Captain James Cook’s Voyages to the South Pole and Around the World, and a rare collection of Buddhist relics. Despite funding from both government and private donors, the society is constantly short of money and its heritage building is in urgent need of renovation.

“Waiting for government funds is like waiting for the rain,” Dr Tikekar says. “They may or may not come.”

Instead, the society offers lectures, workshops, a literary club, an Adopt a Book scheme and fellowships for patrons, and is preparing a new catalogue of its manuscripts to attract more visitors and researchers. It also has its own respected conservation section.

“You have to get young people to come in, by any means possible,” Dr Tikekar says. “And if you have a moribund institution, you need to come up with ways to make it relevant.”

Some think deserted libraries need to stop expecting government handouts.

“Are we supposed to fund libraries that have declining readership?” asks Ms Aggarwal. “If only a handful of students use this library, why should we keep it going?”

But it is a vicious circle for most smaller libraries. “How do you expect me to attract readers when you don’t give me money for new books, online facilities and decent furniture?” asks Mr Rao.

The truth is that the government does not consider books important enough to save, according to many librarians.

“Libraries should not be expected to turn a profit,” Mr Ajgaonkar says. “They are a part of our heritage. We need to consider books as heritage, just as buildings are designated as heritage structures, and give them proper legal protection.”

Libraries are also steadily losing their collections. “India’s antique books are openly leaving the country, to be sold to collectors overseas,” Dr Tikekar says.

“The law bans antiquities from being taken outside India but no one considers ancient manuscripts to be antiquities.”

Meanwhile, the Hardayal library staff have appealed to Delhi chief minister Sheila Dixit, pleading for their salaries.

“We are trying to sort out procedures to take care of the library but these things take time,” Ms Aggarwal says.

“Who cares about books in this country?” asks Mr Rao bitterly. “Soon they may all be sold as raddi [scrap] anyway.”

Interactive Publications - iSuite

Creace Technologies launches platform to publish digital magazines

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Technopark-incubated Creace Technologies on Thursday launched iSuite, a single platform for publishing interactive publications in mobility devices such as iPhone, iPad and Android-based devices.

The new facility offers the best online reading experience anywhere and anytime, said the company.

"A digital edition is a more cost effective way as digital editions serve as a great business model. The reality is that few technologies are short-lived, but many technology companies are very short-sighted," said Hirosh Hussain, Creace Technology CEO.

iSuite has features like categories, subscriptions, archives, library, rich media and search functions that allow surfing content on the mobile extremely informative, interactive, intuitive and simple.

"As everything goes digital, I am happy to learn we get to read enormous information in a single device and which will keep us informed about the current news and developments. iSuite comes very handy, this will be indeed a great step in our pursuit for knowledge," said KC Chandrashekharan Nair, head of Techopark Incubation department.

Thesis Digitization Budget

CHANDIGARH: Research scholars at Panjab University campus and other scholars will now have an easy access to PhD theses of students, completed between 1956 to 2007. PU's Board of Finance (BoF) on Wednesday passed Rs 35-lakh budget for digitization of 8,000 theses, along with rare manuscripts and books with the library. For Manmohan Singh Chair in PU, Rs 15 lakh per annum fund has been sanctioned by the board.


Times of India

Worthy Institutes Tag

UGC to grant innovation university tag to worthy institutes
After making way for foreign institutes to collaborate with Indian ones, the University Grants Commission (UGC) is all set to help chart an alternative route to set up ‘world class’ innovation universities in the country. At a recent meeting, the UGC decided to launch a scheme for conferring the tag of “innovation universities” and “innovation centres” to worthy institutes. To be implemented in the 12th plan period, the scheme will fund existing Central and state universities as well as the best of deemed to be universities to upgrade to an innovation university/ centre status, provided they meet certain parameters related to innovative research.

The minutes of the meeting say that government varsities apart, those deemed varsities that were classified as category ‘A’ by the Tandon committee — indicating that they meet all specified criteria — will also be eligible for an innovative university tag. However, no grants or funding will be released to self-financing deemed to be universities. The UGC intends to extend the scheme to colleges. The Universities of Innovation Bill — in the works since 2009 and introduced in the Lok Sabha in May 2012 — aims at establishing varsities that will encourage superlative academic quality and research output. These were to be set up either by the government, private entities or through public private partnerships and offer unmatched academic freedom.
The Bill provides for upgradation of universities/ institutes to the status of innovation universities, provided they meet certain criteria — a suggestion made by the Planning Commission. It promises a flexible framework allowing freedom to appoint a foreign academician as a vice-chancellor, invite a promising student to join as faculty, allow varsities to device their own merit-based admission process, individual quality standards free from UGC, and to keep the varsity out of CAG’s ambit.

http://digitallearning.eletsonline.com http://digitallearning.eletsonline.com/

Collection of Library Science Quizes

1. Library Science
2. Question Excerpts from UGC NET
3. Khuda Baksh Oriental LIbrary
4.