Vikaspedia is a MeitY initiative for providing e-knowledge and using ICT-based applications for empowerment of poor (rural and urban). It seeks to maximise utility of ongoing government programmes through provision of universally accessible digital information resources in Indian languages, created and shared collaboratively by various development stakeholders.

Developed as part of the initiative, is the multi-lingual, multi-sectoral online knowledge platform - http://vikaspedia.in/ .

Salient features of http://vikaspedia.in/

• Vikaspedia hosts information in all 22 scheduled languages of India, besides English.
• Domains covered - Agriculture, Health, Education, Social Welfare, Energy, e-Governance.
• Vikaspedia hosts multiple content forms – text, audio, video, etc shared by various agencies/individuals.
• Vikaspedia offers content editing & adding provisions to authenticated registered users.
• The platform has several user interactive features - discussion foram, polls, page rating & commenting, interaction with social networking sites, screen reader access, etc.
• The portal information is shared through various modes to reach the last mile – personalised voice alerts, SMS, community radio, mobile apps, e-mailers, audio/video IEC materials etc.

The utility of Vikaspedia is as follows

• Vikaspedia currently hosts 9 lakh pages of content shared by institutions (300+) & registered members (67,000+). It attracts 10.1 Crore hits per month. Exclusive information for marginalised sections like women, SC/ST/BC/Minorities are being covered.
• Focussed capacity building of grassroot service providers on digital information access & sharing in regional languages have been taken up through 2260 events at state, district, community levels covering 23 states & 3 UTs. About 2.94 lakh have been trained so far.
• About 3 Crore target audience have been reached to promote ongoing government programmes through various ICT modes.
• Several products & services developed as part of Vikaspedia have been taken up by various state governments to be replicated as part of their existing programmes.
• Online utility surveys among the users of Vikaspedia portal indicate that Vikaspedia is a preferred source of information among the rural youth who access information on policies, schemes & entrepreneurship.
• Vikaspedia portal and its products have received several awards including the World Summit on the Information Society Forum (WSIS) 2014 Award.