New Delhi, September 11, 2025 — The Ministry of Culture launched a landmark initiative, the Gyan Bharatam Mission, aimed at preserving, digitising, and disseminating India’s centuries-old manuscript heritage. To commemorate this, the Ministry organised the first-ever Gyan Bharatam International Conference on ‘Reclaiming India’s Knowledge Legacy through Manuscript Heritage’ from September 11 to 13, 2025, at Vigyan Bhawan in New Delhi. The conference brought together over 1,100 leading scholars, cultural custodians, experts, and institutions from India and around the world, creating a platform to discuss the preservation, digitisation, and global sharing of India’s manuscript wealth.
Reintroducing India’s Knowledge Legacy
The inaugural session was graced by Shri Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, Minister for Culture, who emphasised that India’s rich knowledge tradition, honed over thousands of years despite invasions and challenges, is now being revived through the Gyan Bharatam Mission initiated under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Shri Shekhawat highlighted that national pride stems from knowing and valuing one’s civilisational heritage. The mission’s goal is to revive ancient manuscripts via digitization, translation, and technological innovation, connecting modern India and the world to the wisdom of sages and scholars whose timeless texts span subjects critical to humanity, environment, and ecosystems.
He urged collective responsibility for safeguarding this cultural renaissance beyond mere lectures or events, calling for the creation of a National Repository, excellence clusters, and centres across India. The Minister lauded institutions and individuals safeguarding these manuscripts despite adversities as custodians of a treasure not just for India but for humanity as a whole.
Keynote Highlights: An Indian Renaissance
Prof. Manjul Bhargava, renowned mathematician and Fields Medalist, delivered a keynote address underscoring India’s unparalleled manuscript wealth—holding over ten million manuscripts covering literature, science, mathematics, philosophy, and art interlinked interdisciplinarily. He articulated that reviving this corpus could foster national pride, advance education, empower communities, and inspire a vibrant Indian Renaissance rooted in knowledge creation and preservation. He advocated seeing the Gyan Bharatam Mission as an act of both preservation and new creation, to inspire future generations worldwide.
Technology and Collaboration at the Forefront
Shri Vivek Agarwal, Secretary of the Ministry of Culture, set the tone for the conference by emphasizing the responsibility to protect India’s ancient culture and heritage for future generations. He described manuscripts as repositories of knowledge surpassing their physical form, and underscored the intricate dialogues anticipated through working groups on script decipherment, digitisation technologies, metadata standards, conservation, legal frameworks, and cultural diplomacy.
A prominent aspect of the mission is the integration of advanced technologies including AI-assisted text recognition (HTR), cloud-based metadata management, and mobile digital platforms to accelerate digitisation and accessibility. The Gyan-Setu AI Innovation Challenge, with several shortlisted innovative tools, is expected to aid automated manuscript decoding and cataloguing.
Repatriation and Global Outreach
Deliberations on manuscript repatriation and heritage preservation were chaired by Dr. Sachchidanand Joshi, focusing on mapping the whereabouts of manuscripts worldwide. With many manuscripts housed overseas in countries such as France, Germany, UK, and Russia, the immediate priority remains identification and digital archiving to restore access and scholarly use while planning eventual restoration of cultural ownership.
Multidisciplinary Sessions and Eminent Participation
Apart from plenary sessions, the conference conducted specialized tracks on manuscriptology, digital archiving protocols, conservation techniques, metadata standards, and heritage management, featuring esteemed experts including Prof. Ramesh Kumar Pandey, Prof. Sachin Chaturvedi, Prof. Bihari Lal Sharma, and Dr. Padma Subrahmanyam. These sessions aim to produce a strategic roadmap to enrich and expand manuscript preservation efforts nationally and internationally.
Looking Ahead
The three-day conference culminates with the Hon’ble Prime Minister’s participation on September 12, followed by a valedictory session chaired by the Union Home Minister on September 13, where key declarations and commitments towards India’s manuscript legacy preservation will be adopted. Gyan Bharatam is envisioned as a transformative cultural renaissance, blending India’s ancient knowledge with modern technology to position the nation as a global intellectual leader while inspiring pride in its civilization’s enduring wisdom.
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Source: PIB
