The National Digital Library in 2016 will bring under its fold 100 institutes and roll out a collection of one million digitised books and journals in the first phase, according to an official.

“The first thing that will come in February is the National Digital Library (NDL) which will come with one million books and journals which will be used by students across the country,” R. Subrahmanyam, additional secretary for technical education in the human resource development ministry told IANS here during the launch of Global Initiative of Academic Networks (GIAN) scheme on Monday.

The NDL will ensure “uniform high standards” of e-content free of cost on a single platform.

“It will have phased expansions and in the first phase 100-odd institutes will be brought under it,” the official said.

Talking about the recently launched Impacting Research Innovation and Technology (IMPRINT) India programme, Subrahmanyam said the aim is to foster innovations that improve living standards of people.

IMPRINT is the first of its kind MHRD supported Pan-IIT + IISc joint initiative to address the major science and engineering challenges that India must address and has 10 focal domains such as sustainable urban design and water resources and river systems.

“It is primarily a call for scientists within the country and they will come up research proposals under these 10 domains. We will fund them very liberally and at the end of five year period we expect innovations and more registering of patents,” he said.

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