Possible Role of CODATA in Facilitating Application of ICT in Societal Development Krishan Lal President, CODATA & Former Director National Physical Laboratory New Delhi, India UN-GAID e-SDDC Launch Meeting, Atibaia, Sao Paulo, 7 May 2007

Outline CODATA Role of CODATA in WISIS Global Information Commons for e-Science CODATA Task Groups having overlapping interests with UN-GAID Plans Preservation and development of traditional knowledge bases: Indian scenario ICT and School Level education Networking of Expertise in different global regions

An Interdisciplinary scientific committee of International Council for Science (ICSU) Established in 1966 – Was born at Bombay (Mumbai) India Moved to France 1975 An independent legal organization, which works in close collaboration with ICSU and the ICSU family First General Assembly was held in 1968 ICSU Committee on Data for Science and Technology – CODATA General Information

Headquarters at 51, Blvd de Montmorency, Paris; Executive Director- Kathleen Cass Web site: Data Science Journal ICSU Committee on Data for Science and Technology – CODATA General Information

CODATA is a non governmental organization 24 Member Countries 15 International Scientific Unions as Members 4 Co-opted Scientific Organizations 13 Supporting Organizations ( Industry, Government and Academia) ICSU Committee on Data for Science and Technology – CODATA General Information

Member Countries Brazil Cameroon Canada Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing Chinese Academy located in Taipei Czech Republic France* Georgia Germany* India Indonesia Ireland * Associate Member Israel Italy Japan Korea Nigeria Poland Russia Senegal South Africa Thailand Ukraine USA

CODATA Achieves its Mission through: Task Groups National Member Activities Participation in Important International Initiatives, eg WSIS Organizes Biennial International Conferences CODATA Electronic Data Science Journal Publications Workshops Studies and Reports Co-operation and Liaison with Other Scientific Organizations

Preparatory Phase: Geneva, Dec 2003 Final Phase:Tunis, November 2005

In December 2003, more than 172 countries participated in the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) at Geneva WSIS – The First Phase Culmination in Geneva In collaboration with ICSU and UNESCO, it held an International Workshop in UNESCO in March 2003 on “The Role of Science in the Information Society” A nine point Agenda for Action came from this Workshop

Declaration of Principles and Plan of Action Adopted by 175 countries Paragraph 7: “Science has a central role in the development of the Information Society.” Article 10 of the Agenda for Action: Emphasis on “Access to Information and Knowledge,” and Article 23 recognizes the important role of “e- Science.” WSIS First Phase: Geneva, December 2003

Major CODATA activities between Geneva (2003) and Tunis (2005) Special Session at 19 th International Conference of CODATA, Nov 2004, Berlin International Workshop on “Creating the Information Commons for e-Science: Toward Institutional Policies and Guidelines for Action” Paris, 1-2 Sep 2005 Three Sessions at the World Summit on Information Society, Tunis, November 2005

ICSU, ICSTI, INASP, UNESCO, and TWAS, in collaboration of the OECD Partners

A Significant Achievement Helped in firming up the new initiative on Global Information Commons for Science after discussions from legal, economic and other perspectives

CODATA, together with its partners had been at the forefront in consolidating the point of view of an important stakeholder namely the scientific community for the WSIS.

President, CODATA, Professor Shuichi Iwata, reported in the Main Plenary Session of the Summit: Launching of a new initiative to create the Global Information Commons for Science

Professor Shuichi, President CODATA addressing the Eighth Plenary Session of the World Summit on the Information Society, 18 November 2005, Tunis Photograph by Prof Liu Chuang

“Science helped to create the Information Society—it can now help extend that society to all.” Iwata, S., and R.S. Chen Science and the Digital Divide (editorial). Science 310 (5747, 21 October): 405.

CODATA has the potential to serve with other organizations as a vehicle of development in the least developed regions, particularly in increasing the quality and spread of education. There is a great scope in integrating traditional knowledge base with the main stream in a transparent and ethical manner. Challenges Facing CODATA

CODATA Task Groups Access to Biological Collection Data Anthropometric Data and Engineering Comprehensive Information System on Natural Disaster Mitigation Data Sources in Asian and Oceanic Countries Data Sources for Sustainable Development in SADC Countries Exchangeable Materials Data Representation to Support Scientific Research and Education Fundamental Constants Gas Hydrates Global Species Data Networks Polar Year Data Policy and Management Preservation of and Access to S&T Data in Developing Countries

Indian Experience: A Glimpse

Country Rankings among All Countries and All Fields (10 Year Rankings – Top 3 Countries Viz-a-Viz India) Country PapersCitations Per Paper TotalsRank*TotalRank*TotalRank* USA2,758,037134,345, Japan699,84024,922, Germany632,26135,802, India184, , *Rank Among ALL Countries in terms of number of papers. Source: ESI (January 1, 1994 – August 31, 2004) Turning Digital Divide into Digital Opportunity……….

Total Top ESI papers Viz-a-Viz India’s Contribution in 10 Years Period ( )

Total Indian Journals :12,000 (appr) Technical Reports (no bibliographic control) : 8236 Theses and Dissertations ( ) No. of Doctoral Degrees Awarded (which implies no. of theses added during one year) : 11,451 Unpublished Research Findings Patents ( ) Applications Filed Patents Granted Patents In-force Conferences ( around 600 conference/year; present estimate 800 –1000/year) Standards No. of Standards in Force as on 31 st March 2001 : During BIS formulated (new & revised) : 319 Special Collections Turning Digital Divide into Digital Opportunity……….

IISc. Bangalore ( INSA ( IIT, Mumbai CSIR laboratories (National Chemical Laboratory) Others Institutional Repositories Content Creation : Initiatives Digital Archives Institutional E-Print Archives

Efforts in setting up of indigenous data centers and Infrastructure for linking with major international data centers are growing up at a fast rate National Collection of Industrial micro-organism (NCIM) ( A national facility dedicated to isolation, preservation and distribution of authentic cultures Starting with just 400 cultures, the NCIM holds 3700 cultures today Indian Biodiversity informatics ( NCL Centre for Biodiversity Informatics (NCBI) is an effort to collect, collate, analyze, predict and disseminate knowledge about Indian biota and its environ Indian MEDLARS Centre : IndMED ( ) Web based Indian Biomedical database A Bibliographic database of Indian biomedical journals Indigenous Data Centres and Infrastructure

National Health Information Collaboration (NHIC) ( A knowledge management tool to serve as a one-point source for authentic and relevant health information on all health topics Health InterNetwork India (HIN India) WEB based Initiatives -WHO/ ICMR project ( ) Targeted to serve health service providers, researchers and policy makers Portal for Indian health data and information facilitated by the Heath InterNetwork India Project, which jointly with Indian Council of Medical Research holds the copyright of the application software Software available to Countries and non-profit institutions for non-commercial use Indigenous Data Centres and Infrastructure URDIP: CSIR Unit for Research and Development for Information Products ( Open access to Indian patents and medicinal plants, pollution technologies, CSIR rural technologies, ETD and research reports

Patent Information Search ( ) Most comprehensive databases on the Patent Bibliography. Database known as EPIDOS( European Patent Information and Document Service) published by European Patent Office (EPO) EPO has been receiving the bibliography of all the patents filed and granted in approximately 71 countries since Database contains over 33 millions references from 1968 onwards Almost 3 millions references are added each year. Gateway services for open access resources SciGate: Science Information Portal (IISc) ( ) AeroInfo: Aerospace Virtual Library (NAL) Indigenous Data Centres and Infrastructure

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Growing trend in India to bring out electronic journals and making them available globally Science Academies in India set the stage and showed way for making scholarly publications available online for facilitating FREE ACCESS Few others following INSA Journals - full-text of all journals available online for Free, Unlimited & Unrestricted Access Indian Academy of Sciences (IASc), - National MedIND : (covering Biomedical journals fromhttp://medind.nic.in/ India) E-Journal Portals

Several proposal are at the conceptual stage to promote digital archiving and content creation and information access/dissemination. National Digital Library (NDL) -DIT, GOI National Digital Library of Learning Objects by CEC an Inter-University project of University Grants Commission Digital India Knowledge creation, preservation, access, and managementKnowledge Portal Knowledge creation, preservation, access, and management Vision in the Making

Introduction of ICT Technology in School Education Education is key to development Quality of education is of great concern in developing societies Stress on training strategies for teachers Indian experience  Computer related corporations have many serious activities,e.g. WIPRO, Intel, etc  Major commercial initiatives to bring digital technologies in schools, e.g. Smart Class, Maths Guru

“Knowledge is good but it availeth not, practice the truth that the man there is thou.” Gospel of Buddha Paul Carus, National Book Trust of India, New Delhi

Summary CODATA and its Activities CODATA’s Role in WSIS CODATA Task Groups focused on Developing Regions A glimpse of main Indian activities To explore newer linkages for applications of knowledge base of its members for development purposes

Thank You Dhanyavad