Visakhapatnam
Visakhapatnam-based Andhra University (AU) is the only State university in the Telugu states and the third in South India to be included among the top 10 universities in the country to digitally record and deposit Ph.D theses of its research scholars.
A total of 678 different universities in India are depositing their theses in Shodhganga, a digital reservoir of Indian theses under the Information and Library Network Centre of the University Grants Commission, Union Ministry of Higher Education. This platform can be accessed by scholars worldwide.
University of Madras topped the list with a digital deposit of 13,881 theses, followed by Anna University with 13,602 theses and University of Calcutta with 13,434 theses. AU has digitally preserved 8,089 theses of various disciplines from 1942, thus ranking third in South India.
Chemistry has the highest number of theses submitted by various universities in the country (nearly 30,000), followed by engineering, education, physics, commerce and management. Sanskrit was also included among the top 20 subjects, with nearly 6,200 theses digitised so far.
According to Chief Librarian of AU Central Library P.Venkateswarlu, AU has around 12,000-odd theses in hard and soft copies submitted by research scholars since its inception in 1926. Digitisation of theses started on February 4, 2022, and covered up to 1942 so far, he added.
“We have to complete digitising some crucial thesis papers submitted by eminent scientists, economists, etc. We will complete them all in the next few weeks. We will be among the top five universities in the country soon as per Sodhganga rankings,” Venkateswarlu added.
Speaking to The Hindu, AU Vice Chancellor P.V.G.D. Prasad Reddy said, “AU is the only university that has a huge number of works written on palm leaves; we are digitising them for public.”
Departments such as social sciences, physical sciences, engineering and technology have the largest number of theses papers uploaded, and the decades of 2010-2019 and 2000-2009 have over 1,500 theses in each. As for the period between 1942 and 1949, only seven theses were taken up for digitisation, he added.
On the other hand, preparations are on to formally unveil the digitised theses of AU by Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy, who is visiting Visakhapatnam to participate in the Global Investors Summit on March 3 and 4.
