'Core Inflation', 'Bid Rigging' or 'Guillotine' – confused! A layman wouldn't be able to understand all these terminologies in Indian context even if he juggles with number of websites. To bridge the gap between the policymakers and general public, the government has launched a website named as 'Arthapedia', a knowledge based portal modeled after Wikipedia to explain the economic terminologies and concepts. The website is specially designed for the people who are new to economic world. The website contains all those economic jargon used in public policy domain in India.

The website is aimed at catering to policymakers, journalists, economists, researchers, critics, officials, diplomats or an interested citizen of any nation.

The website was launched on Monday by Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia at the function organized to mark the Golden Jubilee Celebrations of Indian Economic Services (IES).

“The objective of this portal is to increase transparency in government by simplifying indigenous concepts or by introducing domestic institutions to support the professional development of public policy economists. It is meant to enrich and enhance citizen friendly policy formulation through dialogue and collaborative action," the website says.

Besides serving as a source of reference on key economic terms and concepts, the website also contains the profiles of some of the key policy-makers in India like Dr. C. Rangarajan, chairman of the Economic Advisory Council, Dr. Duvvuri Subbarao, the RBI governor and Prime Minister of India, Dr. Manmohan Singh.

The editorial board of the website consists of senior IES Officers.

Contributors to Arthapedia
The has been designed as an 'open source" reference on the lines of Wikipedia, where, whoever is willing to upgrade the text and context of a particular word can open the text on a virtual mode and edit the same with authentic references. The edited content is posted / uploaded after being moderated by the Editorial Board.

In the initial phase, only the serving IES officers are allowed to write the content of this website. However, non-IES persons can post comments / query now.

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