On March 22, 2011, thirty five countries delegates arrived in New Delhi today for the International conference on utilization of "Traditional knowledge Digital library"; (TKDL) for the protection and conservation of traditional knowledge.The event was hosted by WIPO and CSIR,India (Counsil of Scientific and Industrial Research).The event is expected to deal with Intellectual property related issues in traditional knowledge. The conference was initiated by stating that TKDL is crucial for the conservation of Traditional knowledge in India as well as in combatting Biopiracy. Protection of Traditional knowledge has been immensely important in the ancient medicine systems like Ayurveda, Siddha and Unani ,which could be exploited in the absense of a well constructed Traditional knowledge database.
TKDL project has been worked out in about ten years and it hosts information like ancient medical treatment and important medicinal plants. TKDL contains a whopping 34 million pages in five international languages.It gives access to 0.22 million medicinal formulations.Well in the recent past,India witnessed success in revoking patents issued by USPTO and European Patent Office, which were particularly based on Indian traditional knowledge on Turmeric and Neem medicinal properties respectively. I can gladly say that India is riding high with creation of such a substantial Traditional Knowledge Database. Certainly,it will prove to be a milestone for future advancements.
(Image taken from here)
