Kashi Tamil Sangamam

Hon’ble Prime Minister Sh. Narendra Modi inaugurated the event at Namo Ghat on 17.12.2023 at 5.00 PM, in the presence of Hon’ble Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh Shri Yogi Adityanath, Hon’ble Education Minister Shri Dharmendra Pradhan, Hon’ble Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting & Fisheries Shri L. Murugan, Prof. V. Kamakoti, Director, IIT Madras, VC BHU and other dignitaries.

The event started with Vedic chanting of Mantras by Vedic scholars from Chennai which was followed by a short Carnatic vocal programme by renowned Carnatic vocalist Shri Sid Shriram who gave a scintillating performance.

Apart from launching Kashi Tamil Sangamam 2.0, Hon’ble PM also flagged off the Kanyakumari – Varanasi Tamil Sangamam train

Several milestones were set during the event. Hon’ble PM launched 46 Braille books encompassing 109 volumes totalling to 8,113 pages of Ancient Tamil Grammar and literature such as Tolkappiam, Pathuppaattu, Ettuthokai, Thirukkural, Epics of Tamil Silappathikaram and Manimegalai. It is the first work of its kind to publish rich ancient Tamil literature in Braille at such an extensive scale. Going forth, Central Institute of Classical Tamil (CICT) plans to distribute these Braille books, free of cost, to the visually challenged.

Another milestone was the first time ever, real time and seamless translation of a portion of Hon’ble PM’s speech delivered in Hindi to Tamil for the delegates from Tamil Nadu. This was done using the Bhashini Public Address System (BPAS), developed by BHASHINI division of the Digital India Corporation, which is an AI-driven language translation system facilitating conversations between speakers of different Indian languages. (Technically, the voice of Hon’ble PM was sent as an input to BPAS which was then transmitted wirelessly to the headphones used by the TN delegates.)

The inaugural event was attended by around 3000 people (including delegates from Tamil Nadu, local Tamilians of Kashi, general public of Varanasi). The program was also viewed live by not less than 250 higher education institutions across the country.

Hon’ble Prime Minister also visited the stalls set up in the exhibition to have a glimpse of the various products displayed by various Ministries/Departments of the Govt. of India.

Inaugural Function