GYAN BHARATAM MISSION
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The Ministry of Culture recently hosted the Gyan Bharatam International Conference in New Delhi. The three-day programme brought together nearly 1,100 participants, including experts in conservation, researchers, historians, academics, and keepers of manuscripts.
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This conference also featured the first global meet on manuscript heritage, titled “Reclaiming India’s Knowledge Legacy through Manuscript Heritage.” The event coincided with the 132nd anniversary of Swami Vivekananda’s iconic speech at the Parliament of the World’s Religions in Chicago (1893).
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Emphasising the value of manuscripts, the Prime Minister remarked that these treasures represent the footprints of human progress and document the journey of civilisation through disciplines such as philosophy, science, medicine, metaphysics, art, astronomy, and architecture.
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The conference further witnessed the official launch of the Gyan Bharatam Mission.
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In the Union Budget 2025–26, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced a dedicated mission to survey, document, and conserve the country’s vast manuscript heritage.
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Named the ‘Gyan Bharatam Mission’, the initiative aims to cover over one crore manuscripts. While its headquarters will be in New Delhi under the Ministry of Culture, regional centres are planned in every state to ensure effective implementation.
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With an allocation of ₹400 crore, the project envisions building an institution similar to the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), but focused specifically on safeguarding and interpreting manuscripts.
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This new mission will replace the National Manuscripts Mission, launched in 2003, which primarily focused on digitisation but made limited progress over the years.
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The Gyan Bharatam Mission aspires to encourage academic innovation, reinforce civilisational confidence, utilise technological advancements, and promote cultural diplomacy, aligning with India’s ambition of emerging as a global intellectual leader
The mission is envisioned as an integrated framework to rejuvenate India’s manuscript tradition by bringing together conservation, digitisation, academic study, and worldwide accessibility. Its key aims include:
- (i) Identification and Cataloguing: A countrywide network of Manuscript Resource Centres (MRCs) will be created to locate, document, and catalogue ancient manuscripts preserved in institutions and private collections, thereby preparing an authentic national register.
- (ii) Conservation and Preservation: Strengthened Manuscript Conservation Centres (MCCs) will safeguard manuscripts through both preventive and restorative methods.
- (iii) Digitisation and Repository Development: Manuscripts will be digitised using AI-driven Handwritten Text Recognition (HTR), microfilming, and cloud-based metadata systems. These efforts will culminate in a National Digital Repository, accessible to global users.
- (iv) Research, Translation, and Publication: Unpublished or rare manuscripts will be revived through critical editions, facsimile copies, and translations, ensuring availability in multiple languages.
- (v) Training and Capacity Building: Workshops and structured courses will be conducted in transcription, palaeography, conservation, and manuscript studies to develop a skilled pool of professionals.
- (vi) Technological Innovation: The mission also plans to design digital tools such as mobile apps, secure cloud storage, and platforms based on the International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) for better manuscript access and management
5. Gyan Setu
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As part of the Gyan Bharatam Mission, the Ministry of Culture has introduced Gyan-Setu, a National AI Innovation Challenge.
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The programme is designed to encourage young people and innovators to apply technology in the protection of India’s cultural heritage. With a treasure of more than one crore manuscripts covering diverse fields such as philosophy, medicine, governance, and the arts, the initiative seeks to leverage artificial intelligence to make this knowledge more widely accessible and relevant at a global scale.
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By inviting participation from students, researchers, academic institutions, and start-ups, Gyan-Setu frames heritage preservation as a shared national responsibility
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Digvijay Divas is commemorated every year on September 11 to honour Swami Vivekananda’s iconic address at the World Parliament of Religions in Chicago (1893). The occasion serves as a reminder to revisit his timeless ideas for reimagining India’s role in a conflict-driven world.
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His Chicago speech was more than an appeal for tolerance and mutual respect; it significantly shaped India’s national consciousness, politics, education, and global outlook.
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Opening with the memorable words “Sisters and Brothers of America”, Vivekananda, in his first address at the Parliament, put forward his vision of a universal religion, affirming the truth of all faiths. The central themes of his oration were tolerance and universal acceptance.
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Following the Chicago address and three subsequent years of lectures abroad, Vivekananda came to be celebrated as a pioneer of India’s spiritual resurgence. His emphasis on spiritual unity provided critical inspiration to the early discourse on spiritual nationalism within India’s freedom movement.
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As one of the earliest advocates of spiritual nationalism, he infused the people with pride in India’s ancient civilisation while promoting the idea of spiritual oneness.
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Championing the philosophy of practical Vedanta, Vivekananda placed selfless service above the barriers of caste, class, or social divisions. He repeatedly stressed that brotherhood must form the basis of human relations, reminding Indians that even the poor, the marginalised, and those engaged in humble occupations were united in the spirit of fraternity
- The National Manuscripts Mission (NMM) was launched in February 2003 by the Government of India under the Ministry of Culture with the objective of preserving and promoting India’s vast manuscript heritage.
- India possesses one of the richest manuscript traditions in the world, with estimates suggesting the existence of over five million manuscripts written in different scripts, languages, and on diverse materials such as palm leaves, birch bark, cloth, and paper.
- These manuscripts cover a wide range of subjects, including religion, philosophy, science, medicine, literature, art, and governance, reflecting the depth and diversity of India’s intellectual history.
- The mission was conceived as a national-level initiative to collect, conserve, catalogue, and make available manuscripts scattered across the country. Its vision was not just to safeguard physical manuscripts but also to encourage research and dissemination of the knowledge contained in them.
- The work of the mission was carried out through a network of Manuscript Resource Centres (MRCs) for surveying and documentation, Manuscript Conservation Centres (MCCs) for preservation and restoration, and Manuscript Partner Centres (MPCs) for wider outreach.
- The mission also set up the National Manuscripts Library and the National Manuscripts Database, creating a centralised repository of information on manuscripts in India.
- A key programme of the NMM was digitisation, aimed at creating electronic copies of manuscripts to prevent loss from deterioration and to enable wider access for researchers and the public.
- The mission also promoted critical editions, translations, and publications of rare manuscripts and organised training workshops in palaeography, conservation techniques, and manuscriptology to build human resource capacity in this specialised field.
- Despite its achievements, the NMM faced several challenges. Progress was often criticised as slow, especially in digitisation. Many manuscripts remained in private collections, difficult to access or document. Funding constraints, lack of advanced technology integration, and limited awareness also hindered the mission’s wider impact.
- In 2025, the government replaced the National Manuscripts Mission with the more ambitious Gyan Bharatam Mission, which seeks to scale up the work of NMM by leveraging modern technology like AI-assisted digitisation and positioning India’s manuscript heritage within a global cultural and diplomatic framework
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For Prelims: Gyan Bharatam Mission, Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), National Manuscripts Mission
For Mains: GS I - Art and Culture
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Related Question
1.Consider the following statements, with reference to the Gyan Bharatam Mission: 1. The government is aiming to create an institution on the lines of the Archaeological Survey of India for the preservation and interpretation of India’s manuscripts. 2. The mission intends to cover more than one crore manuscripts. 3. It replaces the existing National Manuscripts Mission. How many of the statements given above are correct? (a) Only one (b) Only two (c) All three (d) None Answer (c)
1. The government is aiming to create an institution on the lines of the Archaeological Survey of India for the preservation and interpretation of India’s manuscripts. 2. The mission intends to cover more than one crore manuscripts. 3. It replaces the existing National Manuscripts Mission. |
