a group of developing countries, headed by India, is compiling the world's first digital library on traditional knowledge of medicinal plants and systems. It will become operational within a year. The library is being jointly set up by the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research ( csir ), two Union ministries and National Informatics Centre.

Scattered and distributed references on traditional medical systems of the developing world will be integrated in a retrievable form. R A Mashelkar, director general of csir says, that this would lead to the formation of a traditional knowledge research centre, which will bridge the gap between traditional and modern systems of medicine. Availability of this knowledge in many languages will give a major impetus to modern medical research in the developing world.