The Government of India has launched the website - www.indianroots.nic.in - to assist persons of Indian origin in tracing their ancestral places and next of kin in India.

This site was formally inaugurated during the recent State visit to India by President Bharrat Jagdeo when he visited his ancestral village, Thakurain ka Purwa, which is in Chatrapati Shahuji Maharaj district (formerly known as Ameethi) of Uttar Pradesh, according to a release from the High Commission of India.

The website is designed to address queries from members of the Indian Diaspora on their ancestral roots in a systematic manner. In an interactive mode, a data-base will be developed through a questionnaire and the data will be transmitted to the administrative units in the relevant places in India and the persons making the query will obtain a feedback.

For helping the Diaspora trace its roots, the release said, the questionnaire in the website seeks such details as the name of the ancestral emigrant from India, his village and district, names of any relatives which the original emigrant may have passed on to his descendants, the name of his caste, year of migration, port of embarkation in India, and the name of the ship. Such details are expected to be available with the descendants or with the local administration in the countries which have imported indentured labour from India.

The release said the following four websites also cater to the requirements of the Indian Diaspora in various areas: http://www.indiandiaspora.nic.in; http://www.indiaday.org; http://www.indiadevelopment.org; and http://indiandiaspora.nic.in/stio.