The government, on Tuesday, launched “Indian version of Wikipedia”, vikaspedia.gov.in which would provide users information related to agriculture, health, education, social welfare, energy and e-governance in five languages.

The portal is a part of the India Development Gateway (IDG) initiative, aimed at offering information and ICT based knowledge products and services in the social development domain. IDG is being run by department of electronics and information technology (DeitY). The portal has been implemented by centre for development of advanced computing (C-DAC), Hyderabad.

While launching the portal, J Satyanarayana, secretary, DeitY, said that Wikipedia, which is based on online crowdsourcing of content, is so popular that is being used for official and legal purposes. The vikapedia will be a single point reference for agriculture, health, education, social welfare, energy and e-governance, with content specific to Indian context. He said. “Vikaspedia seeks to bridge the gap between the poor and development, by providing links to government, civil society groups / NGOs and private institutions,” he said.

According to vikaspedia.giov.in, “As the rural landscape in India is set to take the advantage of the flourishing ICT initiatives pioneered by various institutions, more specifically the Common Service Centres (CSCs), Vikaspedia offers the much required content and services in local languages that makes the difference in the lives of the people.”  The five languages include Assamese, Marathi, Telugu, Hindi and English.

Satyanrayana also unveiled ‘localization.gov.in’ which would facilitate offering services under a few mission mode projects in six languages: English, Hindi, Bengali, Malayalam, Marathi, Punjabi and Gujarati. The six MMPs include MCA 21, passport, health and education. The localisation tool will be ingrained in these services, he said. The government has sanctioned Rs15 crore for the project.