Lamenting the lack of war documentation in India, Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Arun Jaitley on Monday said the country’s war history needs to be popularised using the digital media.
He touched upon the issue of war documentation while interacting with journalists after releasing the 59th edition of ‘India 2015’, the government’s official reference annual, which will be available in the digital format also from this year. “We are one of the few countries which do not have a formal documentation of our war history...I am told that [the Defence Ministry is] moving fast on India’s war history,” he said.
Mr. Jaitley, who held the additional charge of Defence Ministry before Manohar Parrikar, said his analysis of World War-I data showed substantial participation by India. He said 12 lakh Indians had fought in the war and about 70,000 had been injured.
Mr. Jaitley hailed ‘India 2015’, brought out every year in English and Hindi by the Publications Division of the Ministry, as a great tradition and said there was no better document for anyone who wanted to know more about India.
The cover of the latest edition features Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressing the nation on Independence Day, along with a representative image of India’s space exploration and the “Swachh Bharat” logo.
Minister of State for I&B Rajyvardhan Rathore said: “India 2015 is an extensive, exhaustive and authentic collection of information on programmes and activities of ministries and departments of the government.”
