Union Minister of Culture Chandresh Kumari Katoch has said that the linguistic ExpertsRs Committee, which has been constituted by the Indian Government to consider the demands for categorisation of languages as Classical languages, at its meeting in July has recommended Odia to be declared as a Classical language.
In a reply in the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday, Katoch said that as per the Government of IndiaRss Resolution No 2-16/2004-US (Akademies) dated November 1, 2004, the benefits that would accrue to a language declared as Classical language are as follows:
(i) Two major international awards for scholars of eminence in Classical Indian languages are awarded annually. (ii) A RsCentre of Excellence for Studies in Classical languagesRsis set up. (iii) The University Grants Commission to be requested to create, to start with at least in the Central Universities, a certain number of Professional Chairs for Classical languages for scholars of eminence in Classical Indian languages.