Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had mentioned about Gandhipedia during the course of her Budget speech in the Parliament on Friday.
The Central government has planned a slew of measures to celebrate the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi which falls on October 2 this year.
In order to mark the occasion, a Gandhipedia is being developed by the National Council for Science Museums (NCSM) to sensitise the youth and the society at large about Gandhian values, Sitharaman had said in her speech.
"The portal will function on artificial intelligence (AI) and machine running. It will be a repository of knowledge on Mahatama Gandhi. The portal will contain original photographs, visuals, speeches and the 100 collected works of Gandhiji. Books by Gandhiji will also be available on the portal apart from books that have been written on him," said a senior official of the Culture Ministry on Sunday.
The Gandhipedia will be free for access to everybody. The project is at present being designed by the National Council for Science and Museums. It will be jointly implemented by IIT-Kharagpur and IIT-Gandhinagar.
The Sabarmati Ashram Preservation and Memorial Trust has been maintaining the Gandhi Heritage Portal (www.gandhiheritageportal.org) which is also a repository of knowledge on Mahatma Gandhi. This portal, which contains Gandhian works in portable document format (pdf), will continue to run simultaneously along with Gandhipedia.
"Works contained on the Gandhi Heritage Portal are not in a searchable format. The works that are being uploaded on the Gandhipedia are based on optical character recognition plus technology. It will be in searchable format," said the official.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had embarked upon the Swachh Bharat Mission on October 2, 2014. In her Budget speech, Sitharaman had also said that the target to make India open defecation free (ODF) will be achieved by October 2 this year.
The official said that more than 95 per cent of cities across the country have been declared ODF. More than 45,000 public and community toilets across 1,700 cities have been uploaded on Google maps, covering more than 53 per cent of India's urban population. Almost one crore citizens have downloaded the Swachhata App.
( With inputs from IANS )