The Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences (KISS) Deemed to be University organized a two day workshop on Collecting Stories Under Digital District Repository (DDR) Project of Azadi Ka Amrit Mohatsav (AKAM) supported by Center for Cultural Resources And Training (CCRT), Ministry of Culture (MoC), Government of India on 5th and 6th January 2023.

The DDR Project is an attempt to discover and document stories of people, events, and places linked to the freedom struggle of India at the micro level of the districts. Stories under this project can be broadly classified under – People & Personalities, Events & Happenings, Hidden Treasures – Built & Natural Heritage, and Living Traditions & Art Forms. CCRT has been assigned the DDR project under AKAM by Ministry of Culture under which approximately 5000 stories/snippets are required to be documented under four different heads, respectively 1) People and Personalities, 2) Events and Happenings, 3) Living Traditions and Art Forms and 4) Hidden Treasures (a. Built Heritage and b. Natural Heritage). In which CCRT trained teachers, teacher educators, scholars, fellows, KISS faculty members and students, authors, poets etc. were jointly invited by CCRT and KISS.

The workshop was addressed by Shri Rishi Vashist, Director, CCRT, Professor Deepak Kumar Behera, Vice Chancellor KISS-DU in the presence of Professor Jyana Ranjan Mohanty, Registrar KIIT-DU and Dr. Prashanta Kumar Routray, Registrar, KISS-DU. There were sessions by Shri S. C. Barmma, Advisor – Ministry of Culture. A practical session was undertaken on extensive academic exercise of writing stories and sharing the experience about documenting these stories by Dr. Rahul Kumar, Deputy Director and I/c AKAM, CCRT, Aparupa Patnaik from Center for American Studies, KISS-DU and by Shri Dev Avinash Taneja, Programme Executive, CCRT.

The aims and objectives of the programme was to discuss and understand the methodology for documenting the stories under DDR Project, to develop the framework for writing the stories under various heads i.e. People & Personalities, Events & Happenings, Living Traditions & Art Forms and Hidden Treasures Built & Natural Heritage, to identify the districts as well as sites of such relevant places to be included and to prioritize them for documentation under DDR Project and to provide the prescribed Performa to participants along with deadline to submit the stories.

The Lalit Kala Akademi (Regional Center) Bhubaneswar had also put up an Exhibition on Freedom Fighters of Odisha during the workshop at the venue.

Further, a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed between CCRT, New Delhi and KISS & KIIT, Bhubaneswar, Odisha on 6th January 2023 to promote academic cooperation and exchange in the field of Education, Culture and Research. The MoU signing ceremony was graced by Shri Rishi Vashist, Director, CCRT and Dr. Vinod Narayan Indurkar, Hon’ble Chairman, CCRT, Professor Sasmita Rani Samanta, Hon’ble Vice Chancellor KIIT-DU, Professor Deepak Kumar Behera, Hon’ble Vice Chancellor, KISS-DU, Professor Jyana Ranjan Mohanty, Registrar KIIT-DU and Dr. Prashanta Kumar Routray, Registrar, KISS-DU. The Hon’ble Chancellor of KISS-DU Shri. Satya Sundar Tripathi also graced the occasion with his presence.