Research Centre on Kannada, Telugu soon

KDA proposes to fund Kannada Chairs in varsities of Germany, Austria

Speaking to reporters here on Tuesday, he said the Ministry of Human Resources Development, department of higher education (languages division) in its letter dated September 29, 2011 said the CIIL would establish two research centers one each for Kannada and Telugu, which will work on various schemes and activities identified by the Central Institute of Indian Languages, Mysore, which includes research, documentation, propagation and teaching of these languages.

It will also coordinate such work undertaken by the individual institutions in the State/Union Territories of India and provide linkage to studies in other classical languages in the world.

The functions of the research centers would be to identify sources of the classical languages, procure manuscripts and undertake digitisation of the manuscripts, publish books related to classical Kannada/Telugu, award certificate of honour along with cash awards to distinguished scholars of national and international repute who carved niche for themselves through writings, make documentation of living scholars of eminence who are well versed in classical texts, create avenues for interdisciplinary research involving studies of numismatics, epigraphy, archaeology and ancient history, link classical language and modern technology, translate classical text into other Indian languages and European languages and create classical language chairs in various Indian universities.

He said the Central government has sanctioned 37 posts to these centers. The project director of the Centre of Excellence for Studies in Classical Kannada and Telugu languages would work under the supervision and guidance of the CIIL Director, he said.

The Centre has also directed the CIIL to constitute planning cum monitoring Board for each Centre of Excellence.

He said the Centre has projected expenditure for the languages namely Kannada and Telugu in the 12th plan at Rs 10.22 crore.

Kannada abroad

For the benefit of Kannada research scholars residing abroad, the Kannada Development Authority (KDA) has mooted a proposal to fund Kannada Chairs in Munich University, Heidelberg University, University of Wurzburg, Germany and Vienna University in Austria.

He said the KDA also grants fellowships of Rs 20,000 each for 93 postgraduate Kannada students studying in nine universities located outside the State.