Source: TH
Context:
The Gyan Bharatam Mission, a flagship initiative of the Union Ministry of Culture, is set to sign Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) with around 20 institutions across India for the conservation, digitisation, and promotion of the country’s rich manuscript heritage. Another 30 institutions are expected to join in the coming days.
Key Highlights:
- Objective and Mandate:
- The mission aims to identify, document, conserve, digitise, preserve, and promote India’s vast and diverse manuscript heritage.
- It will establish a National Digital Repository (NDR) to make India’s manuscript heritage accessible worldwide through a unified digital platform.
- Institutional Framework:
- Partner institutes are categorised as:
- Cluster Centres: Responsible for their own activities and those of up to 20 partner centres in their cluster.
- Independent Centres: Handle manuscript-related activities for their own collections only.
- Partner institutes are categorised as:
- Scope of Activities:
Institutes under Gyan Bharatam will focus on the following six key areas:- Survey and Cataloguing
- Conservation and Capacity Building
- Technology and Digitisation
- Linguistics and Translation
- Research and Publication
- Public Outreach and Awareness
- Funding Structure:
- Funds will be disbursed in phased instalments:
- First Instalment: 70% on approval of the annual budget.
- Second Instalment: 30% after submission of progress and financial reports, utilisation certificates, and relevant documentation.
- Funds will be disbursed in phased instalments:
