Central Institute of Indian Languages is located at which of the following places?

Question

UnlockIAS · Accepted Answer

Correct — B, Mysore (Mysuru). The Central Institute of Indian Languages (CIIL) was set up on 17 July 1969 at Mysuru in Karnataka and has functioned from there ever since, today under the Language Bureau of the Ministry of Education (the Ministry of Human Resource Development at the time of this 2019 exam). It is the Government of India's nodal body for coordinating the development of Indian languages — it runs the regional language centres that train teachers of second languages, carries out language documentation and materials production, and implements the Scheme for Protection and Preservation of Endangered Languages (SPPEL) and language-outreach initiatives such as Bhasha Sangam. The name misleads candidates because it sounds like a Delhi head-office institution, but 'Central' here means centrally funded, not centrally located.

Why the other options are wrong — (a) Varanasi is a genuine centre of language and classical learning — the Central Institute of Higher Tibetan Studies sits at Sarnath, Varanasi, and Sampurnanand Sanskrit University is in the city — which is exactly why the option is tempting. But CIIL is not there; no part of it is headquartered in Varanasi.  (c) New Delhi houses the language-policy machinery of the Union government — the Department of Official Language and the Central Hindi Directorate, for example — so candidates assume any 'Central Institute' must be based in the capital. CIIL is an exception: it was deliberately located in the south, at Mysuru.  (d) Shimla is the home of the Indian Institute of Advanced Study (housed in the former Viceregal Lodge), a research institute in the humanities and social sciences. That is a different body altogether and has no connection with CIIL.

Concept: CIIL is the Union government's apex institution for the coordinated development of Indian languages. Established at Mysuru in 1969, it works on language documentation, corpus and materials development, teacher training in second languages through its network of regional language centres, and the preservation of endangered languages under SPPEL. It reports to the Language Bureau of the Ministry of Education, the same department that handles Hindi/official-language and modern Indian language schemes.

State PCS 2019 Q6 — Art & Culture PYQ with Answer

State PCS 2019 Q6 — Art & Culture PYQ with Answer