New ‘Gyan Bharatam Mission’ for Manuscripts

Context: The Union Budget 2025-26 announced a special mission for the survey, documentation and conservation of India’s manuscript heritage.

About Gyan Bharatam Mission

• It is a special mission for the survey, documentation, and conservation of India’s manuscript heritage lying with academic institutions, museums, libraries and private collectors.
• Coverage: To cover more than one crore manuscripts.
• Nodal Ministry: Ministry of Culture
• A National Digital Repository of Indian knowledge systems for knowledge sharing will be set up.
• The mission will be executed under the National Mission for Manuscripts (NMM).
• Budget Allocation: To accommodate the new mission, budget allocation for the National Manuscripts Mission (NMM) has been hiked from 5 crore to 60 crore.

About National Mission for Manuscript (NMM)

• It was established in 2003, by the Ministry of Tourism and Culture (GOI).
• To achieve this mandate, the mission has established more than 100 Manuscripts Resource Centres and Manuscripts Conservation Centres all over India.

Objectives

• Locate manuscripts through a national-level survey and post-survey.
• Document each and every manuscript and manuscript repository, for a National Electronic Database.
  • It currently contains information on 4 million manuscripts making this the largest database on Indian manuscripts in the world.
• Conserve manuscripts incorporating both modern and indigenous methods of conservation and training a new generation of manuscript conservators.
• To train the next generation of scholars in various aspects of Manuscript Studies.

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