The Karnataka Jnana Ayoga (KJA), which had brought about the convergence of various fields and sectors towards building a knowledge society, will wind up next month.
The KJA, also known as the Karnataka Knowledge Commission, was established on September 5, 2008, under the chairmanship of renowned space scientist and Planning Commission member K. Kasturirangan. It has brought about a paradigm shift in outlook towards education by producing voluminous reports and implementing them in various phases in the last four years.
Speaking to The Hindu on Monday, M.K. Sridhar, member secretary and executive director of the Karnataka Jnana Ayoga, said a decision was taken to wind up the commission by the end of February 2013.
“With process to elections to the State Legislative Assembly commencing from March onwards, we have decided to shut down the commission,” he said.
The tenure of the commission will end on June 30, 2013.
The commission was constituted with the support of the former Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa, to respond to the demands of various educational institutions, universities and R&D institutes in the State.
What it has done
The commission has submitted 89 recommendations in five phases on various sectors such as education, public health, government services, community knowledge and practices, skill development and geographical information system. Several of its recommendations were implemented by the Primary and Secondary Education, Higher Education, Labour and Social Welfare departments, Dr. Sridhar said.
The commission provided inputs to draft the State Youth Policy, 2012, Innovative Universities Bill and constitution of the Karnataka State Innovative Council. It provided grants under the Jnana Shodha scheme to 13 institutes to undertake research projects in various fields.
Reports
In December 2012, it came out with a report on ‘Higher Education Vision 2020’. Its other major works included ‘Building Knowledge Society in Karnataka’ and ‘Perceptions, Aspirations, Expectations and Attitudes of Youth of Karnataka’.
Data in Kannada
The commission, which worked independently, conceptualised Kanaja, an encyclopaedia portal in Kannada to serves as a repository of all data available in Kannada.
It supported Amulya-2012 , initiated by the Department of Commerce and Industries and the Karnataka State Innovation Council to give away awards and incentives for patent applications filed by individuals and institutions.
The commission, which had hired nine researchers for carrying out various activities, has decided to submit its final report next month to the Chief Minister.
It has also decided to open a knowledge portal to store all its research works and data collected in the last four years.
“It is difficult to maintain the website daily. We have decided to set up a portal and give ID number to the public for its access.”
“The KJA submitted itself for an evaluation of its work by the Public Affairs Centre (PAC), Bangalore. The evaluation report was then submitted to the government and is also made available to the public,” he said.
Staff in demand
Asked about the staff after the closure of the KJA, Mr. Sridhar said: “Already, several government agencies have been enquiring about our research assistants and their CVs.”
