He said that cultural assets are powerful products and life line of humanity. People have a right of open access to it. He suggested that the available cultural resources at different locations need to be digitized in an international quality standard and be linked with each other. Dr James held the opinion that conservation and open access of cultural assts & heritage had been a challenging task. Odisha has the potential and capability of being a model State in this direction in South East Asian region. He offered to have collaborative partnership with Odisha for conservation of Odia language, heritage and other cultural assets.
After the lecture, Chief Secretary Sri Aditya Prasad Padhi felicitated Dr. James by presenting Odishi Khadi sal and a book on Nabakalebara as a token memory. Dr James also presented the documents of the summary proceedings of the Orissa Advisory Council held on 8 th May, 1936 in digitized form to the Chief Secretary. Dr James is presently working as Bibliographer for Southern Asia, Joseph Regenstein Library, University of Chicago. Previously he served as Interim Director South Asia language Resource Center. Some of his path braking works include, “ International Information Exchange:New Configuration for Library Collaboration in South Asia Studies”, Geospatial Data and Integration of Digital Resources for South Asian Studies”.
Development Commissioner Sri. R. Balakrishnan introduced the esteemed scholar to the audiance and mentioned about contributions of Dr James in digitization and preservation of Purna Chanddra Bhasakosha in Southern Asia Joseph Regenstein Library of the University of Chicago. He was also instrumental in digitization of Odia language dictionary. Sri Balakrishnan further said, “we would like to conserve all records and books relating Odisha that are available in Odisha, within India and also in other countries. Dr James assured his help in this initiative.
Hon’ble Chief Minister, Sri. Naveen Patnaik witnessed the lecture from his conference hall through video conferencing. The Ministers, MLAs, Principal Secretaries, Secretaries, academicians, persons of eminence from various fields along with senior functionaries from both Central and State Govt. participated in the programme.
The programme was also video linked to all 30 districts from where collectors and senior officers the districts participated in discussion. Because of the growing popularity of the programme it was further video linked to 2nd floor conference hall of the secretariat from where senior officers of the State participated in it.