Gyan Bharatam Mission: 20 Institutes Join Manuscript Digitisation Drive in India

The Union Ministry of Culture has taken a major step toward preserving India’s ancient knowledge traditions by onboarding the first batch of institutions under the Gyan Bharatam Mission. About 20 institutes across the country have formalised partnerships to conserve, digitise, and showcase India’s manuscript heritage on a unified global platform.

These collaborations were sealed through Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) signed on October 25. According to officials, around 30 additional institutions are expected to join the initiative soon, sharply expanding its nationwide outreach.

Among the prominent organisations participating in the first phase are the Asiatic Society in Kolkata, University of Kashmir in Srinagar, Hindi Sahitya Sammelan in Prayagraj, and the Government Oriental Manuscript Library in Chennai. Each of these centres holds historically significant collections that contribute to the diversity of India’s cultural and intellectual legacy.

Announced in the Union Budget 2025, the Gyan Bharatam Mission aims to identify, catalogue, conserve, and digitally archive India’s manuscripts — estimated to be one of the largest repositories of pre-modern knowledge in the world. The digitised content will be hosted on the National Digital Repository (NDR), ensuring free and seamless access for global scholars, researchers, and learners.

To streamline operations, institutions have been categorised based on their roles. “Cluster Centres” will coordinate activities not only for their own collections but also for up to twenty partner institutions, while “Independent Centres” will focus exclusively on their individual manuscripts.

Each participating entity will establish a dedicated Gyan Bharatam Cell, prioritising activities such as field surveys, preservation work, cataloguing, digitisation, translation, and public engagement initiatives. Progress will be closely monitored to ensure adherence to quality and conservation standards.

Funding will be disbursed in two stages. Seventy per cent of the allocated amount will be released after approval of each centre’s annual action plan, while the remaining thirty per cent will be awarded following rigorous progress checks, utilisation certificates, and third-party quality verification.

The Culture Ministry recently organised its first international conference on manuscript heritage, titled “Reclaiming India’s Knowledge Legacy,” underscoring the government’s intent to elevate Indian knowledge systems on the world stage. Through Gyan Bharatam Mission, fragile centuries-old manuscripts — across domains such as medicine, mathematics, astronomy, Vedic literature, philosophy, and arts — will now be preserved and made accessible for future generations.

Officials emphasised that this initiative not only strengthens cultural conservation efforts but also empowers India as a global contributor of ancient wisdom and scholarly research.