Indian Government offers support for Bhandarkar Institute

[Madhav Deshpande]

Here is a report from Pune Newsline:

	
BORI will get Central funds	
Express News Service	

Pune, February 28: When Finance Minister P Chidambaram announced that city-based 
Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute (BORI) was among the four institutes in the country to 
receive funds from a Rs 30 crore corpus, BORI secretary MG Dhadphale’s thoughts went back 
to the lines in the visitor’s book written by Chidambaram assuring full government support to 
the institute. 

“Chidambaram visited the institute on December 2, 2006 and while he was impressed with 
the work, the lack of funding dismayed him. He told us the government would fail in its duty 
if it didn’t extend support,” said Dhadphale on Wednesday. 

True to his word, Chidambaram picked BORI to receive funds as part of the 150th 
year of the First War of Independence and centenary of the Satyagraha Movement. The exact 
allocation may not be clear as yet, but it is an achievement. 

“This is the first time a budgetary provision has been made for an institute in the field of 
culture,” said BORI regulatory council chairman and computer scientist Vijay Bhatkar. 

With growing international interest in India, Bhatkar said this would benefit research focussed 
on topics like heritage, languages and family systems. “Research projects in areas like the 
evolution of democratic institutions in India and theories on the Aryan invasion can now be 
carried on with renewed vigour,” he enthused. Another important project that will now be 
possible is the digitisation of the library. 

The major sources of income for BORI include Rs 80,000 paid annually by the government — 
proceeds from the sale of the institute’s 350 publications — and donations. Staffers have 
had to work on meagre salaries while scholars have funded research from their own pockets.