Date:26/11/2007 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2007/11/26/stories/2007112655142000.htm

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UNESCO to offer video encyclopaedia on India

Anand Parthasarathy

BANGALORE: The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization(UNESCO) has strengthened its web portal with a rich video-based encyclopaedia on Indian heritage and culture. The collection will soon cover all States and Union Territories, highlighting the cultural diversity,craft and traditional knowledge of each region.

To offer this resource, UNESCO has entered into a partnership with the Thiruvananthapuram based content provider, Invis Multimedia, known as the agency behind the critically acclaimed series of DVDs on Indian dance and the Kerala State tourism portal.

Minja Yang, Director of UNESCO’s New Delhi office, explained that the objective was to develop an atlas of India that combined geographical features with cultural highlights.

The site that went live on Sunday can be accessed through the UNESCO portal ( www.unesco.org ) or directly at IndiaVideo ( www.indiavideo.org).

Building on the strengths of Invis, it already contains a strong section of nearly 1000 videos on Kerala, as well as on yoga, ayurveda and Indian classical dance forms.

Invis Multimedia’s Managing Director, M.R. Hari, told The Hindu that by next year, the company planned to offer videos on all 28 World Heritage sites in India designated by UNESCO. Invis has been building its video collection for 10 years and has a library of over 6,000 clips many of which would be used to build the resources at the UNESCO portal he added.