The Indian History Awareness and Research (IHAR) launched its operations in Odisha on Friday. Headquartered in Houston, USA, the IHAR is a private think tank established to research Indian history with an Indic-lens. It is an attempt to create an intellectual system taking a uniquely Indic route to Indian history and all the associated areas. It has on its team eminent historians, doctors, scientists and entrepreneurs from India and abroad. 

Speaking on the occasion, Dr Surya  Sarathi Roy, director of North India Operations, said the IHAR believes that a shared sense of history and culture is the constitutive elements of individual and collective identities of citizens in a nation state. India’s history and civilisation have had unbroken continuity, albeit with periodic disruptions that in recent times have led to an understanding of India that is fragmented, incoherent and incomplete.

Dr Adyasha Das, convener of Odisha Operations, stressed on the need to collect, collate, interpret and integrate new knowledge into India’s history while being respectfully inclusive of India’s own recorded and oral traditions.

Anil Dhir, director of IHAR’s Odisha Operations, said the New Education Policy calls for a comprehensive overhaul of the education system, including its regulations and management, to establish a modern system that aligns with 21st-Century educational goals. The New Education Policy mandates respecting India's cultural heritage and values through heritage awareness education across all levels of education. The IHAR would soon sign MoUs with different institutes and schools across Odisha.