Technology should progressively unfold its secrets for democratisation of knowledge, according to Prof Rajan Gurukkal, Vice-Chancellor, Mahatma Gandhi University (MGU).
Prof. Gurukkal was inaugurating the two-day national workshop on Open Access Technologies at the University Library. The programme is conducted in association with the World Open Access Week.
“Providing universal access to knowledge is equivalent to emancipation of it from the clutches of secrecy. Holding back of knowledge will lead to enslavement, bureaucratisation and privatisation. Transparency needs to be brought into technology just like in the case of science,” said Prof. Gurukkal.
Delivering the keynote lecture, former Kerala University Vice-Chancellor B. Iqbal said the open access initiative would revolutionise the knowledge sector in the world within a decade.
Dr. Iqbal congratulated the MGU on its bold initiative of creating the online digital library. Swift search in all Indian languages has become possible with the software developed by the MGU.
The Open Access Initiative, which was started in 2000, has started offering significant results as in the case of the unique full text, multilingual digital archives of doctoral dissertations, which was developed by the MGU in association with Beehive Digital Concepts, Ernakulam.
