Parliament Question: Gyan Bharatam Mission

GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF CULTURE LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 455 ANSWERED ON 02.02.2026 GYAN BHARATAM MISSION

455. Dr. Shashi Tharoor :

Shri Amar Sharadrao Kale :

Will the Minister of Culture be pleased to state:

(a) the details of the "Gyan Bharatam" national initiative launched by the Government with the objective of preservation, digitization and dissemination of manuscript heritage of the country;

(b) the list of all institutions that have signed or are scheduled to sign Memorandums of Understanding (MoU) under the Gyan Bharatam Mission, along with their categorisation as Cluster Centres or Independent Centres and the number of partner institutions assigned to each Cluster Center in the country, State/UT-wise especially in Kerala;

(c) the details of manuscripts that have been identified, catalogued, conserved, digitised and uploaded to the National Digital Repository (NDR) as of date under the Mission, State/UT and language-wise;

(d) the details of the Government prescribed quality standards, technical benchmarks and/or metadata protocols for digitisation and cataloguing under the Gyan Bharatam Mission;and

(e) the details of the measure taken/being taken for the cataloguing, preservation and ensuring public access to manuscripts under the said mission? ANSWER MINISTER OF CULTURE AND TOURISM (SHRI GAJENDRA SINGH SHEKHAWAT)

(a) Gyan Bharatam, announced during Union Budget 2025-26, is a flagship initiative of the Ministry of Culture (MoC), Government of India aimed at unearthing, safeguarding and preserving India’s vast manuscript heritage. Aligned with the national vision of Viksit Bharat 2047, the initiative seeks to harmonize cultural preservation with human capital development, ensuring that India’s ancient wisdom continues to inspire generations to come. To support the initiative, the Standing Finance Committee (SFC) has sanctioned Rs.491.66 crore for the period 2025-2031. This initiative focuses on five verticals namely (i) Survey and Cataloguing (ii)Conservation and Capacity Building (iii) Technology and Digitization (iv) Linguistics and Translation (v) Research, Publication, and Outreach.

(b) Gyan Bharatam has been mandated to establish a nation-wide network of Cluster Centers

(CCs) and Independent Centers (ICs) across the country. A list of CCs and ICs onboarded so far is annexed.

(c) More than 7.5 Lakh manuscripts have been digitized under Gyan Bharatam, Out of which,

1.29 Lakh manuscripts are available on Gyan Bharatam Portal i.e. https://gyanbharatam.com.

(d) The Key technical and quality standards and metadata protocols for digitization and

cataloguing of manuscripts are:

1. Strict imaging norms to ensure preservation and high-quality digital outputs.

2. Minimum 400 DPI, 24-bit colour scanning (600 DPI where required) using non-destructive face-up overhead scanners with cold light.

3. Mandatory image post-processing includes de-skewing, cropping, light equalization, and the removal of digital “noise” like worm-marks or stain-marks while maintaining color integrity and 100% manual quality verification.

4. Master files in TIFF v 6.0 (LZW compressed); access copies in JPEG; searchable copies in PDF/A with indelible watermark.

5. Long-term storage through LTO-9 tapes with cloud-based backup and disaster recovery.

6. Building a fully functional, AI-integrated digital platform and mobile application.

7. Metadata Capture levels: Descriptive metadata (content), Structural metadata (navigation), Technical metadata, Administrative metadata-incorporating manuscript content details, details on original source, institutional details, locative region, language, script, conservation status, date of creation, version of digital object, file format used, compression technology used, object relationship, etc.

8. Metadata supplied in CSV and XML formats with each digitization batch.

(e) Following measures have been taken in this regard:

(i) 45 Centers have been onboarded so far to carry out the activities outlined under Gyan Bhatamam initiative on aforesaid five verticals.

(ii) 20 States / UTs have also been onboarded so far to act as the Nodal Coordinating Authority for Gyan Bharatam implementation within the State / UT concerned.

(iii) A detailed manual on preservation and conservation has also been framed and shared with esteemed conservation experts for feedback.

(iv) Survey app has been developed and shared with stakeholders for feedback.(v) Technical partners have been on boarded for:  Basic level metadata creation and its integration on National Digital Repository (NDR) and to facilitate integration of manuscripts and its metadata for global accessibility via NDR.

 Deployment of scanners & equipments to be deployed across designated centres for digitization of manuscripts.  Building a fully functional, AI-integrated digital platform and mobile application.  Providing continuous hot, cold, cloud-based storage hosting, backup and security support.

 Data storage using LTO-9 tape for long term archival and disaster recovery management.Annexure Cluster Centres (28) S. State Organization Name No 1 Assam Dept. of Sanskrit, Assam University, Silchar 2 Nava Nalanda Mahavihar, Nalanda Bihar 3 Patna Musuem, Patna 4 University Library Jamia Hamdard Delhi 5 Central Sanskrit University 6 Shruta Ratnakara, Ahmedabad Gujarat 7 Oriental Institute, The Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda, Vadodara 8 Himachal Pradesh Himachal State Museum, Shimla 9 Dept. of Persian, University of Kashmir, Srinagar 10 J & K Shasvat Art Gallery Jammu 11 Karnataka Samskriti Foundation, Mysuru 12 Oriental Research Institute, Mysuru 13 Kerala Oriental Research Institute & Manuscript Library, University of Kerala, Thiruvananthapuram 14 Ladakh Central Institute of Buddhist Studies, Leh 15 Manipur Manipur State Archives 16 Madhya Pradesh Department of Sanskrit, Dr. Hari Singh Gour University, Sagar 17 Kavi Kulaguru Kalidas Sanskrit University, Nagpur Maharashtra 18 Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute, Pune 19 SARASVATI Bhadrak Odisha 20 Department of Sanskrit, Utkal University, Bhubaneswar 21 Rajasthan Sanskrit Academy, Jaipur 22 Rajasthan Vishwa Gurudeep Ashram Shodha Sansthan, Jaipur 23 Sikkim Namgyal Institute of Tibetology, Gangtok 24 Telangana Telangana State Archives & Research Institute, Hyderabad 25 Uttar Pradesh Vrindavan Research Institute, Vrindavan26 Shri Laxmidhar Acharya Chakradhar Joshi Vidyamandir Shodh Uttarakhand Sansthan (SLACJVMSS), Nakshatra Vedhshala, Devprayag 27 University of Patanjali 28 West Bengal The Asiatic Society, Kolkata Independent Centres (17) 1 Andhra Pradesh Sanatan Jeevan Trust, Tirupati 2 Khuda Baksh Oriental Public Library, Patna 3 Bihar Bodh Gaya Math, Gaya 4 Gujarat Adhyatma Parivar Trust, Surat 5 Haryana Kurukshetra University, Kurukshetra 6 Karnataka Tara Prakashan Vedic Library & Research Centre, Bangaluru 7 Sevadhi Museum & Ideological Research Institute, Kottayam 8 Kerala Chinmaya International Foundation, Ernakulam 9 Anandashram Samsthan, Pune 10 Maharashtra Bharat Itihas Sanshodhak Mandal Sadashiv Peth, Pune 11 Anekant Gyan Mandir Bina 12 Madhya Pradesh Scindia Oriental Research Institute, Ujjain 13 Abhay Jain Granthalaya, Bikaner 14 Rajasthan Rajasthan Oriental Research Institute, Jodhpur 15 Padmashri Narayan Das Pandulipi Shodh Sansthan, Jaipur 16 Nagari Pracharini Sabha, Varanasi 17 Uttar Pradesh Hindi Sahitya Sammelan, Prayagraj *****