Context:
- The Union Ministry of Culture is expanding the scope of the Gyan Bharatam Mission, its flagship heritage conservation initiative, by signing Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) with around 20 institutes to conserve, digitize, and promote India’s vast manuscript heritage.
- The initiative aims to create a National Digital Repository (NDR) to showcase India’s ancient knowledge systems globally, aligning with the broader vision of “Cultural Atmanirbharta” and Digital India.
Key Highlights:
- Institutional Collaborations
- Around 20 institutions will sign MoUs in the initial phase; 30 more are expected to join subsequently.
- These institutions will serve either as:
- Cluster Centers: Oversee their collections and up to 20 partner centers, ensuring regional coordination.
- Independent Centers: Focus solely on conserving and digitizing their own manuscript collections.
- The Ministry will provide funding, technical support, and equipment based on approved work plans and performance.
- Core Objectives of Gyan Bharatam
- Identification, documentation, conservation, digitization, preservation, and promotion of India’s manuscripts.
- Establishment of a National Digital Repository (NDR) — a centralized digital archive of manuscripts accessible to researchers worldwide.
- Emphasis on capacity building, linguistic and translation work, and research-publication linkages.
- Financial & Administrative Framework
- Funding will be released in phased installments:
- 70% upfront on approval of the annual plan.
- 30% upon submission of progress and utilization reports.
- Each center must set up a dedicated “Gyan Bharatam Cell” with skilled professionals for coordination, quality control, and documentation.
- Regular monitoring and quality verification will be conducted by the Ministry to ensure standardization.
- Activities Supported
- Surveying & Cataloging: Identifying rare manuscripts across public and private collections.
- Conservation: Using scientific methods to restore fragile texts.
- Digitization: High-resolution imaging and metadata creation for online access.
- Translation & Linguistic Work: Rendering ancient scripts (e.g., Sanskrit, Pali, Tamil, Persian) into accessible formats.
- Research & Outreach: Publications, exhibitions, and awareness campaigns to promote India’s civilizational heritage.
Relevant Prelims Points:
- Gyan Bharatam Mission:
- Announced in the Union Budget 2025–26 under the Ministry of Culture.
- Integrates manuscript heritage with Digital India and Bharat Shared Knowledge initiatives (BharatVANI).
- Manuscript Conservation Centres (MCCs):
- Established earlier under NMM, now being integrated into Gyan Bharatam’s cluster framework.
Relevant Mains Points:
- Significance:
- Preserves civilizational knowledge systems across disciplines—philosophy, science, medicine, mathematics, art, and governance.
- Promotes research and innovation in traditional Indian knowledge.
- Enhances soft power and cultural diplomacy, positioning India as a knowledge civilization in global forums.
- Governance & Implementation:
- Represents federal cultural governance, combining central oversight with institutional autonomy.
- Supports capacity-building and skill development in conservation science and manuscript studies.
- Challenges:
- Fragility of manuscripts due to humidity, fungi, and aging paper/palm leaves.
- Lack of skilled conservators, and uneven documentation of regional manuscript collections.
- Digital infrastructure gaps in smaller centers may slow data integration.
- Way Forward:
- Develop a “One Heritage Digital Platform” integrating archives, museums, and libraries.
- Encourage public–private partnerships and crowdsourced transcription projects.
- Promote academic fellowships in manuscriptology, palaeography, and traditional knowledge systems.