What happened

The Ministry of Culture is implementing a digitisation initiative for museum collections and archival resources using the JATAN software developed in technical collaboration with the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC), Pune. The Ministry reports creation of a national digital repository through the Museums of India portal and a parallel digitisation push for manuscripts under the Gyan Bharatam Mission and for archival records under the National Archives of India’s Abhilekh Patal portal.

Background and earlier position

Digitisation work in the Ministry of Culture’s domain operates across institutions. The Museums of India portal hosts digitised museum collections, while the Gyan Bharatam Mission focuses on safeguarding India’s manuscript heritage via a dedicated portal. For archival records, the National Archives of India undertakes digitisation to preserve documentary heritage and support access through its dedicated portal, Abhilekh Patal.

What changed now

The current status reflects active scaling across three repositories: (1) museum artefacts shared through the Museums of India digital repository, (2) digitised manuscripts made available through the Gyan Bharatam portal, and (3) digitised archival images being uploaded to Abhilekh Patal for public and research access. The Ministry also reports continued phased digitisation, supported by financial assistance for digitisation under the Museum Grant Scheme.