Lok Sabha Question No. 5781 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2026-03-30
Subject: Gyan Bharatam Mission for Digitisation of Heritage Manuscript
Ministry: CULTURE
Asked by: Shri Bhartruhari Mahtab, Shri Rajiv Pratap Rudy, Shri Dhairyasheel Sambhajirao Mane, Dr. Nishikant Dubey, Dr. Hemant Vishnu Savara, Shri Dileshwar Kamait, Smt. Mala Rajya Laxmi Shah, Shri Sudheer Gupta, Shri Naba Charan Majhi, Shri Anoop Pradhan Valmiki, Smt. Himadri Singh, Shri Praveen Patel, Shri Vishweshwar Hegde Kageri, Shri Yogender Chandolia, Ms Kangna Ranaut, Shri Khagen Murmu

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF CULTURE LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 5781 ANSWERED ON 30.03.2026

Gyan Bharatam Mission for Digitisation of Heritage Manuscript

## 5781. Smt. Mala Rajya Laxmi Shah:

Shri Dileshwar Kamait:

Shri Sudheer Gupta:

Shri Y ogender Chandolia:

Dr . Nishikant Dubey:

Shri Dhairyasheel Sambhajirao Mane:

Ms Kangna Ranaut:

Shri Vishweshwar Hegde Kageri:

Shri Anoop Pradhan Valmiki:

Smt. Himadri Singh:

Dr . Hemant Vishnu Savara:

Shri Khagen Murmu:

Shri Naba Charan Majhi:

Shri Praveen Patel:

Shri Rajiv Pratap Rudy:

Shri Bhartruhari Mahtab:

Will the Minister of CULTURE be pleased to state:

- (a)  whether the  Government successfully launched the Gyan Bharatam Mission on 9 th March, 2026;
- (b) if so, the details thereof along with the total outlay;
- (c)  the  manner  in  which  the  mission  has  successfully  digitised  over  3.5  lakh  manuscripts  in various  regional  repositories  as  of  early  2026  along  with  the  number  of  such  manuscripts identified and preserved from the Vindhya region, specifically within the Shahdol Lok Sabha Constituency;
- (d)  the  details  of  specific  role  that AI-assisted  Handwritten  Text  Recognition  (HTR)  plays  in making these ancient manuscripts searchable for researchers;
- (e) whether the Kriti Sampada digital repository now hosts over 44 lakh documented manuscripts for global public access and if so, the details thereof; and
- (f) the manner in which the Government has incentivized private collectors to share and digitize rare palm-leaf manuscripts under the new guidelines issued in 2026?

## ANSWER

## MINISTER OF CULTURE AND TOURISM (SHRI GAJENDRA SINGH SHEKHAWAT)

(a)  &  (b)  Gyan  Bharatam  Mission  (GBM),  announced  during  Union  Budget  2025-26,  is  a flagship  initiative  of  the  Ministry  of  Culture  (MoC),  Government  of  India  to  undertake manuscripts  related  activities  under  various  components  including  survey  and  registration  of manuscripts, building robust technology infrastructure and partnership, documentation, preservation,  conservation,  digitization,  publication  of  manuscripts  and  capacity  building  & research.    To  support  the  initiative,  the  Standing  Finance  Committee  (SFC)  has  sanctioned Rs.491.66 crore for the period 2025-2031. (c)  Technical  partners  have  been  onboarded  for  various  functions  including  metadata  creation and  its  integration  on  National  Digital  Repository  (NDR),  deployment  of  equipments,  AIintegrated  digital  platform  and  long-term  data  storage.  Digitization  of  manuscripts  has  been undertaken, on pan-India basis, through onboarded States and Union Territories (UTs), centers, universities,  libraries,  museums,  temples,  mutts  etc.  using  standardized  protocols,  creation  of metadata and integration into National Digital Repository (NDR), enabling long-term preservation and public accessibility. More than 8 lakh digitized manuscripts in different formats such  as  DVD,  HDD,  microfilms  are  available  across  the  country  including  the  subsumed National Mission for Manuscripts (NMM). Institutions namely (i) Department of Sanskrit, Dr. Hari  Singh  Gour  University,  Sagar  (ii) Anekant  Gyan  Mandir,  Bina  and  (iii)  Scindia  Oriental Research Institute, Ujjain located in Madhya Pradesh, have onboarded with GBM to carry out manuscripts related activities as elaborated above.

(d)  AI-assisted  Handwritten  Text  Recognition  (HTR)  plays  a  transformative  role  in  making ancient  manuscripts  searchable  for  researchers  as  it  converts  images  of  manuscripts  into machine-readable  and  searchable  digital  text  to  facilitate  improved  readability,  indexing  and searchability of these manuscripts.

(e) More than 8 lakh digitized manuscripts in different formats such as DVD, HDD, microfilms are available across the country, out of which, 1.29 lakh manuscripts are accessible, at present, in view mode, to the public on the Gyan Bharatam Portal i.e. https://gyanbharatam.com.

(f)  Private  collectors  are  encouraged  through  outreach  and  awareness  mechanisms  to  facilitate sharing  and  digitisation  of  their  manuscripts.  However,  there  is  no  provision  under  GBM  to incentivize private collectors for this purpose.

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