PM to launch revamped manuscripts mission on June 9
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will launch the revamped National Manuscripts Mission, which was announced in the Union Budget earlier this year, on June 9.
The 'Gyan Bharatam Mission', which is expected to cover more than one crore manuscripts, would be responsible for the survey, documentation and conservation of India's manuscript heritage lying with academic institutions, museums, libraries and private collectors.
To accommodate this new initiative, the Union Budget had hiked the budgetary allocation for the existing National Manuscripts Mission (NMM) from ₹3.5 crore to ₹60 crore.
Sources told The Hindu that a series of meetings, helmed by the Union Culture Secretary, have taken place to finalise the contours of the new organisation being set up and it is expected to be launched on June 9 by the Prime Minister.
The Hindu had reported in October last that the Union Ministry of Culture was set to 'revive and relaunch' the NMM and was mulling the formation of an autonomous body to help preserve ancient texts in India.
Presently, NMM is a part of the Indira Gandhi National Centre for Arts. It was set up in 2003, but had not taken off as expected.
The Culture Ministry had organised a meeting first on October 14, 2024, to discuss the way forward. The meeting chaired by Culture Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, was attended by some notable experts in the field like former Chairperson of Central Institute of Indian Languages (CIIL), Mysore and well-known linguist Udaya Narayana Singh, Prof. K. Ramasubramanian of IIT Bombay, Dr. M.A. Alwar of Samskriti Foundation, Dr. Sudha Gopalakrishnan, Founder Director of NMM; Chamu Krishna Shastry, Chairman of Bhartiya Bhasha Samiti and Shrinivasa Varakhedi, Vice-Chancellor of Central Sanskrit University, Delhi. The expert group also included a programme manager from Google Arts and Culture.
According to sources, the NMM has till date, prepared a metadata of 52 lakh manuscripts and roughly over three lakh titles have been digitised. However, only one-third of them have been uploaded.
A senior official from the NMM said out of the nearly 1.30 lakh manuscripts uploaded, only 70,000 were available for viewing. The reason for this was that there was no 'access policy', which means there is no incentive for private owners to make manuscripts available with them be viewed.
Around 80% of manuscripts in India are with private parties.
The NMM has also informed that over the last 21 years, they have undertaken preventive and curative conservation of nine crore folios.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Hindu
an hour ago
- The Hindu
Five Left parties appeal to PM Modi to stop ‘extra-judicial killings' in Chhattisgarh
In a joint appeal to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, five Left parties urged him to put an immediate halt to the 'extra-judicial' killings in the region around Chhattisgarh under Operation Kagar. The General Secretaries of the five Left parties- CPI's D. Raja, CPI(M)'s M.A. Baby, CPI(ML)'s Dipankar Bhattacharya, Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP) leader Manoj Bhattacharya and All India Forward Bloc (AIFB) leader G. Devarajan, in the letter, said there are reports that several senior Maoist leaders are currently in the custody of the security forces. 'We demand that they should all be produced in court and dealt with as per the rule of law,' they said. Also read: Seeking truth and reconciliation in Chhattisgarh Issue of militarisation The Adivasis in the region have long been complaining about the militarisation of the region. 'The Adivasi rights enshrined in the Fifth Schedule of the Constitution are being systematically violated and the forests and minerals of Chhattisgarh are being subjected to indiscriminate corporate exploitation with disastrous implications for environmental stability and livelihood of the local people. We urge upon you to stop this militaristic approach that treats the Adivasis with unmitigated hostility,' the joint appeal said. The leaders underlined that the government has been refusing to hand over the bodies to the families, denying them their right to give a dignified farewell to their family members. The repeated appeal from the Maoists for dialogue has also been ignored. 'The statements made by the Union Home Minister, reiterating the deadline and the Chhattisgarh Chief Minister's assertion that there is no need for talks, reflect a mindset unwilling to resolve issues through dialogue. The government should not be intransigent and celebrate the taking of human lives against the spirit of the law of the land and principles of democratic governance,' the leaders said. The Left parties urged the government to respond to the Maoist declaration of unilateral ceasefire and initiate a dialogue to resolve all issues. 'We reiterate the appeal and urge upon you to stop the extra-judicial killings and violence with immediate effect and order an impartial judicial enquiry,' they said.
Time of India
an hour ago
- Time of India
270 million pulled out of poverty! How Modi government achieved a remarkable dip in extreme poverty & what's the road ahead? Explained
Marking a big achievement over the last decade, extreme poverty in India has dropped substantially from 27.1% in 2011-12 to 5.3% in 2022-23, according to the latest data. The remarkable progress under the Narendra Modi government has come despite the World Bank raising its poverty threshold to $3 per person per day from $2.15 per person per day earlier. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now Incidentally, India's huge reduction in extreme poverty comes at a time when globally there has been an increase in the number of people below the poverty line. According to a government fact sheet, India has emerged a statistical outlier in the positive direction. The latest data is being seen as a boost in the government's economic growth narrative, and also comes at a time when the is set to become the fourth largest globally by the end of this year. Experts have commended the reforms and inclusive growth measures undertaken in the last decade for the progress made in reducing poverty. 'India is not only well on its way to becoming the fourth largest economy in the world at the end of 2025-26 as per IMF data, but has also done exceptionally well in nearly eliminating extreme poverty and tangibly reducing income inequality,' says DK Srivastava, Chief Policy Advisor at EY India. World Bank Poverty Line Data: Top Facts The number of people living in extreme poverty in India has dipped to 75.24 million in FY 2022-23 from 344.47 million in FY 2011-12. Almost 270 million people have been lifted above the poverty line in a span of just 10 years If one were to use the poverty line definition for low middle income countries ($4.20 per person per day), then India's poverty rate has dropped to 23.9% from 57.7%. EY India's Chief Policy Advisor points out that India has nearly eliminated extreme poverty. 'According to the World Poverty Atlas, a headcount ratio of poor below 3% amounts to elimination of extreme poverty. These estimates are based on the 2022-23 household consumption expenditure survey using a recall method of Modified Mixed Reference Period. In fact, consumption expenditure undertaken by households understates the actual consumption of households since it does not capture subsidized provisions through various government welfare schemes like Ayushman Bharat and Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan,' he tells TOI. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now Also Read | 'The profile of income inequality, as measured by the Gini coefficient, also shows clear improvement. Between 2011-12 and 2022-23, the Gini coefficient has fallen from 28.78 to 25.51. These are highly desirable characteristics of India's development path,' adds DK Srivastava. How has India done it? India's GDP has more than doubled in the last decade, and experts believe that this has trickled down to the poorest, helping raise them above the extreme poverty threshold. A multi-pronged approach by the government seems to have worked to lower extreme poverty. Job creation and capital expenditure push, along with direct benefit transfers have worked, say experts. Ranen Banerjee, Partner, Government Sector Leader at PwC India explains, 'There are a multitude of factors that have made it possible with the general economic growth and the trickle down effect. Higher construction activity owing to the higher tax revenue efficiency and consequent higher capex by the government from progressive digitalisation and formalisation of the economy has created several construction jobs. ' 'The cash transfers under various schemes of the central and state governments directly into bank accounts of the beneficiaries enabled by Aadhar and the MGNREGA scheme has also aided this improvement. The growing middle class and ensuing consumption from the services sector growth has been an enabler,' he tells TOI. 'Another factor is the investments in roads, improving mobility and improved rural urban connectivity through the PMGSY. This has made the rural population more mobile to peri-urban areas as well as taking farm produce with relative ease to Mandis and urban markets. The cooperative movement and the setting up of Farmer Producer organisations (FPOs) and women self help groups for economic activities is also a contributor,' he elaborates. Also Read | 'The push on financial inclusion catalysed by UPI has led to better small credit availability for nano businesses and individual trades. The proliferation of gig economy workers and e-commerce linking enterprises to rural source artisans is another supporting element of this achievement,' he adds. Madan Sabnavis, Chief Economist, Bank of Baroda says, 'Economic growth has been impressive if the Covid years are excluded. This has meant that growth does help to alleviate poverty.' Sabnavis tells TOI that job creation, including through programmes like NREGA, MUDRA, special schemes for vendors has helped. He also attributes direct benefit transfers and free food programmes, which automatically lowers the number of poor as basic food is being provided by the government. 'Several states have followed the policy of giving money to women in the lower income groups like Maharashtra, MP, Tamil Nadu etc. This directly pulls people out of the poverty trap,' he adds. What's the road ahead? India continues to be the world's fastest growing major economy and is expected to overtake Japan this year to become the 4th largest economy. In the coming years, it will surpass Germany to become the third largest. Yet, for a country which ranks among the top 5 in terms of nominal GDP, the per capita income continues to be low. 'Going ahead, with the economy continuing to grow at a high rate, we can expect more jobs to be created which will help in sustainable living standards. The governments may have to continue to provide support at the lower income levels until such time that families are able to procure jobs that will make them independent of such support,' concluded Madan Sabnavis. While progress has been made on the path to increase the standard of living of its population, India still has a long way to go. As it looks to alleviate poverty, it will be crucial to ensure that benefits of higher GDP reach the poorest. Also Read |
Hans India
2 hours ago
- Hans India
MEA slams 'fake' reports on Saudi visa issue, says temporary restrictions on short term visas during Haj
The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) on Monday termed media reports of Saudi Arabia suspending issuance of block work visas for citizens from 14 countries, including India, as "fake", asserting that the Saudi government has not issued any notification on the matter. "This CLAIM is FALSE. FACT: The Saudi Government has not issued any notification on this matter. As a matter of practice, during the Haj season, there are temporary restrictions on short term visas to avoid overcrowding during this season, which end with the conclusion of Haj," the MEA's official FactCheck account posted on X. Earlier in the day, foreign policy experts had debunked reports and claims made by some opposition leaders about Saudi Arabia visa halt, asserting that the "temporary decision" would not affect the sturdy relationship between both nations. Government sources had made it clear that Saudi Arabia's move to temporarily halt Umrah, business, and family visit visas for 14 countries, including India, from April to June 2025, was to manage the massive Haj crowds and ensure safety. "The suspension is a result of logistical, not political, compulsions as restrictions have been imposed on granting short-term visas to avoid overcrowding during the Haj season," said an official. Saudi authorities, which strictly controls Haj, have stated that multiple-entry visas were being misused. Some travellers entered the country on long-term visas but remained illegally for work or performed Haj without proper authorization. The over-crowding has also become a serious issue due to unauthorised pilgrims using long-term visit visas to bypass restrictions. This issue became particularly alarming in June 2024 when over 1300 pilgrims died due to overcrowding and extreme heat as temperatures exceeded 50 degree Celsius. Saudi authorities believe unregistered pilgrims significantly contributed to the crisis, necessitating tighter visa regulations. By restricting travel to single-entry visas, the Saudi government aims to ensure that only authorized pilgrims perform Haj, reducing risks associated with unregulated attendance. Saudi Arabia has called this suspension a temporary measure, but no timeline has been provided for a review. The Saudi government will monitor the impact before making further decisions. Despite such temporary restrictions, the Saudi government remains focused on expanding tourism with India under the Vision 2030 initiative. The bilateral trade between the two countries touched USD $43.36 billion in FY-2023-24. During Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to the country last month, India and Saudi Arabia signed USD $100 billion worth of agreements in energy, infrastructure, security, and innovation sectors, strengthening bilateral trade and investment relations. India's fifth-largest trading partner, Saudi Arabia continues to align its economic priorities amidst global market turbulence and energy realignments.
