Dr. Dinesh Katre received the 2020 Emmett Leahy Award from the hands of Dr. Vijay P. Bhatkar, the founder Executive Director of C-DAC and Chancellor, Nalanda University, who was the Chief Guest in the ceremony that took place on 29 October 2020 at C-DAC Innovation Park, Pune. 

Due to the pandemic, the award presentation was organized in India at C-DAC, Pune along with the international members of the Emmett Leahy Award Committee who joined virtually through video conference mode. The Emmett Leahy Award, which was constituted in 1967 in the USA, honours a pioneer in the field of information and records management and recognizes the outstanding contributions that have a major impact on this profession. The Emmett Leahy Award is known as the greatest independent global recognition of the individuals who have had a major impact in the field of information and records management, and that Dr. Katre is the first Indian and second person in Asia to have won this award. As the recipient of this award, Dr. Katre is now invited to join the Emmett Leahy Award Committee for the next ten years.

The Emmett Leahy Award Committee recognized the sustained leadership by Dr. Dinesh Katre, Senior Director & HOD, C-DAC Pune, on issues of digital stewardship and preservation over several decades. In particular, through his efforts in creating India’s National Digital Preservation Program and its flagship project, the Center of Excellence for Digital Preservation, he has helped to advance the cause of providing robust and trustworthy platforms for the preservation of digital materials, including for electronic recordkeeping systems and tools for intelligent archiving. Among his many impressive achievements, he led the development of the DIGITĀLAYA (डिजिटालय), e-Library and Archiving System which played an important role in the ISO 16363 certification of world’s first trustworthy digital repository. 

The virtual award presentation happened in the gracious presence of the past Emmett Leahy Award Winners namely Prof. Julie McLeod, Chair of Emmett Leahy Award Committee; Dr. David Giaretta, Director, PTAB, UK; Jason Baron, Past Chair of ELA, USA; Prof. Richard Marciano, University of Maryland, USA; Charles Dollar, Past Chair of ELA, USA; Dr. Luciana Duranti, University of British Columbia, Canada, Christine Arden, President and Fellow of ARMA International, Canada and the sponsor Mike Quinn, the CEO of Preservica, UK.

In his acceptance remarks, Dr. Dinesh Katre thanked the Emmett Leahy Award Committee and said that the knowledge societies in the 21st century will increasingly depend on the intelligence and knowledge extracted from digital archives and therefore digital preservation should be supported through a national policy.

Received the Annual Award of Distinction of C-DAC at the hands of Shri N. Vittal, Secretary, Department of Electronics (DoE)

Received the Annual Award of Distinction of C-DAC at the hands of Dr. Sam Pitroda, Advisor to the Prime Minister of India on Technology Missions