pr: Innovative web based video encyclopaedia of India (UNESCO)

Press Release no. 40/07
Innovative web based video encyclopaedia of India
UNESCO New Delhi has announced plans for an innovative web based video 
encyclopaedia of India.  The site, www.indiavideo.org, will highlight 
the unique culture, heritage and geography of India.  It is being 
developed by Invis Multimedia Private Limited, one of the premier 
content development organizations specialising in audiovisual production.

Announcing the agreement between UNESCO (the United Nations Educational, 
Scientific and Cultural Organization) and Invis Multimedia, Minja Yang, 
Director of the UNESCO New Delhi Office, explained that one of the 
Organization’s key mandates is to safeguard and promote the wealth of 
the world’s cultural diversity. “India is a vast country with an 
extraordinarily ancient and diverse cultural heritage.  The unique 
objective behind this project is to develop an atlas of India that 
covers not just its geographical features but its cultural ones too. 
We are very pleased to partner with Invis Multimedia in the creation of 
a format that is easily accessible world-wide and that will raise 
awareness of the importance of safeguarding India’s heritage.”

The new encyclopaedia will have detailed sections on each state and 
union territory of India.  The video clips will be supplemented with 
text in English language.  Kerala is the first state to be covered, with 
two thousand professionally created video clips, which are to be 
uploaded by March 2008.  The uploading of video clips from other parts 
of India will begin along with formal launching of the site in April 2008.

UNESCO is particularly known in the field of culture for its World 
Heritage Programme.   There are 28 World Heritage Sites in India, but 
Ms. Yang said that UNESCO’s principles embrace the protection and 
promotion of heritage and creativity in a much broader sense: “Cultural 
diversity encompasses landscapes and buildings, but also rituals, 
performing art, traditional crafts and other traditional knowledge on 
nature.  This is why a video encyclopaedia is particularly well suited 
to depicting the full range of India’s culture.”  Ms. Yang pointed out 
that India is a signatory to the Convention on the Protection and 
Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions and the Convention 
for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage, which were 
both promulgated by UNESCO.

Invis Multimedia has extensive experience in the development of 
interactive materials for tourism, including CD-ROMs and DVDs on Kerala, 
Ayurveda, and Indian classical dance, some of which have been honoured 
with the Ministry of Tourism’s National Award of Excellence.

For further information:
M.R. Hari 								Ms. Rekha Beri
Email : hari@xxxxxxxx						Email : r.beri@xxxxxxxxxx
Mobile : 09447019749