102 Open Access to Knowledge: Initiatives in India A N Bandi 1 , Shekappa Bandi 2 1. Head Resource Center, National Institute of Fashion Technology, Navi Mumbai-410 210 anb321in@yahoo.co.in 2. Semi-Professional Assistant, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai -400088, bandishekar9@gmail.com Study traces major Open Access Initiatives in a digital environment. Major National Open Access initiatives briefly enumerated to give an overview of the movement. Study strives to illustrate initiatives on open access to information and knowledge. Some of the common open access channels found are digital libraries, open access journals, institutional repositories, national-level repositories, open courseware, metadata harvesting services, etc. Most of the open access initiatives are supported by government bodies or public institutions, followed by non-profit making organizations. Keywords: OAI, Digital Libraries, India 1. INTRODUCTION In the information society, free flow of information is a fundamental principle for bridging the knowledge gaps between privileged and under-privileged communities. Social inclusion and economic empowerment are also achieved in a society where citizens have universal access to information and knowledge, ranging from public information to specialized or customized information related to ones' profession, vocation or culture. Open access to information and knowledge is a key contributor in provisioning universal access to information and knowledge. Thus, the open access movement is gaining momentum in developed countries which already have necessary information infrastructure. The emerging economies amongst the developing countries are not far behind in building up necessary information infrastructure, essential for sustainable economic development. These emerging countries, however, have limitations in terms of bridging the digital divide within their societies, due to the co-existence of marginalized and privileged communities. With the availability of advanced information and communication technologies (ICTs) and by building up necessary information infrastructure in India, it becomes an active contributor to global open access literature, a contribution, almost proportionate to its flow of scholarly literature through subscription-based channels. 2. OAI AND TRADITIONAL KNOWLEDGE Traditional knowledge, presently available amongst indigenous people in folklore or other forms, is now being explored and documented. The digitization of century-old publications and rare documents is being carried out in different institutions across the country to preserve them and make them accessible through networks of digital archives. E-content is are being produced by members of different communities, facilitated by certain development organizations, including the apex higher education agencies (viz., University Grants Commission); apex research councils (e.g., Council of Scientific and