Parliament Question: Gyan Bharatam Mission for Digitisation of Heritage Manuscript

GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF CULTURE LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 5781 ANSWERED ON 30.03.2026 Gyan Bharatam Mission for Digitisation of Heritage Manuscript

5781. Smt. Mala Rajya Laxmi Shah:

Shri Dileshwar Kamait:

Shri Sudheer Gupta:

Shri Yogender Chandolia:

Dr. Nishikant Dubey:

Shri Dhairyasheel Sambhajirao Mane:

Ms Kangna Ranaut:

Shri Vishweshwar Hegde Kageri:

Shri Anoop Pradhan Valmiki:

Smt. Himadri Singh:

Dr. Hemant Vishnu Savara:

Shri Khagen Murmu:

Shri Naba Charan Majhi:

Shri Praveen Patel:

Shri Rajiv Pratap Rudy:

Shri Bhartruhari Mahtab:

Will the Minister of CULTURE be pleased to state:

(a) whether the Government successfully launched the Gyan Bharatam Mission on 9th March, 2026;

(b) if so, the details thereof along with the total outlay;

(c) the manner in which the mission has successfully digitised over 3.5 lakh manuscripts in various regional repositories as of early 2026 along with the number of such manuscripts identified and preserved from the Vindhya region, specifically within the Shahdol Lok Sabha Constituency;

(d) the details of specific role that AI-assisted Handwritten Text Recognition (HTR) plays in making these ancient manuscripts searchable for researchers;

(e) whether the Kriti Sampada digital repository now hosts over 44 lakh documented manuscripts for global public access and if so, the details thereof; and

(f) the manner in which the Government has incentivized private collectors to share and digitize rare palm-leaf manuscripts under the new guidelines issued in 2026? ANSWER MINISTER OF CULTURE AND TOURISM (SHRI GAJENDRA SINGH SHEKHAWAT)

(a) & (b) Gyan Bharatam Mission (GBM), announced during Union Budget 2025-26, is a flagship initiative of the Ministry of Culture (MoC), Government of India to undertakemanuscripts 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. To support the initiative, the Standing Finance Committee (SFC) has sanctioned Rs.491.66 crore for the period 2025-2031.

(c) Technical partners have been onboarded for various functions including metadata creation and its integration on National Digital Repository (NDR), deployment of equipments, AI- integrated digital platform and long-term data storage. 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 including the subsumed National Mission for Manuscripts (NMM). Institutions namely (i) Department of Sanskrit, Dr.

Hari Singh Gour University, Sagar (ii) Anekant Gyan Mandir, Bina and (iii) Scindia Oriental Research Institute, Ujjain located in Madhya Pradesh, have onboarded with GBM to carry out manuscripts related activities as elaborated above.

(d) AI-assisted Handwritten Text Recognition (HTR) plays a transformative role in making ancient manuscripts searchable for researchers as it converts images of manuscripts into machine-readable and searchable digital text to facilitate improved readability, indexing and searchability of these manuscripts.

(e) 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.

(f) Private collectors are encouraged through outreach and awareness mechanisms to facilitate sharing and digitisation of their manuscripts. However, there is no provision under GBM to incentivize private collectors for this purpose.

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