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Centre for Contemporary Indian Studies at Queen’s
Professor Bill Kirk, was Head of the
School
of
Geography
between 1969 - 1986 and was also Pro-Vice-Chancellor of Queen's University 1982 – 1986.
Prashant Shukla from CMC in Kolkata and Dr Paul Ell, Director of the Centre for Data Digitisation Analysis (CDDA) at Queen’s. While in Kolkata, CDDA also signed an agreement with CMC which will see the Centre at Queen’s digitise records from the General Register Office (GRO) in Northern Ireland, one of CMC’s clients. The international partnership will mean the public will soon have easier access to over seven million records from the GRO.
The Centre will be a bridge between Indian science, culture and society, the University and the entire Queen’s community in Northern Ireland.
India is the second largest investor after the United States in the IT business in Northern Ireland and trade collaborations have been made between companies in NI and India. One of the first beneficiaries of such partnerships is Queen’s Centre for Data Digitisation Analysis (CDDA). CMC, a leading Kolkata-based IT company have a £400,000 deal with CDDA to digitise Indian government records.
With a commitment to endow a chair in Gandhian Studies and other cognate disciplines, the Centre will also house the single largest collection of books and monographs on India, namely the Bill Kirk India Collection, which has been endowed to the University by the Kirk family.