Parliament Question: Digitisation of Caches of Rare Manuscripts

GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF CULTURE LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 5898 ANSWERED ON 30.03.2026 Digitisation of Caches of Rare Manuscripts 5898. Shri Kalyan Banerjee: Will the Minister of CULTURE be pleased to state: (a) the details of digitisation of several caches of rare manuscripts across the country for protecting and documenting textual heritage under the scheme of manuscript digitization taken so far, since 2016, category-wise; (b) the details of number of selection of manuscripts taken for digitization and completed so far till January 2026; and (c) the detail of the budget sanctioned and allocated thereon, since 2016-17 to 2025-26, year-wise? ANSWER MINISTER OF CULTURE AND TOURISM (SHRI GAJENDRA SINGH SHEKHAWAT) (a) to (c) Under the National Mission for Manuscripts (NMM), during 2003-2024, 3.50 lakh manuscripts were digitized. In addition, Gyan Bharatam Mission (GBM), announced during Union Budget 2025-26, is a flagship initiative of the Ministry of Culture (MoC), Government of India to undertake manuscripts related activities under various components including survey and registration of manuscripts, building robust technology infrastructure and partnership, documentation, preservation, conservation, digitization, publication of manuscripts and capacity building & research. Under this Mission, digitization of manuscripts has been undertaken, on pan-India basis, through onboarded States and Union Territories (UTs), centers, universities, libraries, museums, temples, mutts etc. using standardized protocols, creation of metadata and integration into National Digital Repository (NDR), enabling long- term preservation and public accessibility. More than 8 lakh digitized manuscripts in different formats such as DVD, HDD, microfilms are available across the country, out of which, 1.29 lakh manuscripts are accessible, at present, in view mode, to the public on the Gyan Bharatam Portal i.e. https://gyanbharatam.com. The year-wise budget sanctioned and allocated thereon since 2016-17 to 2025-26 is as under: Financial Year Sanctioned Budget Actual Expenditure (In Cr.) (In Cr.) 2016-17 12.00 5.88 2017-18 5.50 4.78 2018-19 12.00 8.87 2019-20 3.41 3.33 2020-21 4.17 3.69 2021-22 During this period, the activities of NMM were carried out as 5.77 2022-23 part of the ‘Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts’ 5.52 2023-24 (IGNCA) overall programmes as NMM was rationalized and 5.05 it was envisaged to source the its fund requirement through IGNCA. 2024-25 3.50 2.63 2025-26 15.00 13.39 (as on date) ******