Govt announces contest for Indian Historical Records Commission's logo, motto

New Delhi, May 12 (PTI) A contest to design a logo for the Indian Historical Records Commission was kicked off on Friday, a senior official of the National Archives of India said.

The Indian Historical Records Commission (IHRC) is an all-India forum of creators, custodians and users of records which was set up in 1919 to advise the Union government on all issues connected with the management of records and their use for historical research. It is headed by the Union minister of culture and comprises 134 members, including agencies of the Government of India, nominees of the Union government, representatives from states and UT archives, universities and learned institution, a senior official said.

The MyGov website of the central government announced that the National Archives of India has sought entries from people for the logo of IHRC along with a motto from May 12-June 12.

The National Archives of India (NAI) here also functions as the secretariat of IHRC. The IHRC since its inception has held 63 sessions and has contributed significantly to the growth of public interest in the conservation and use of archives, the MyGov website says.

As part of the resolutions adopted at the 63rd Session of IHRC held at Lucknow from December 18-19 last year, it was unanimously agreed that the IHRC should adopt a logo and motto to visually communicate the unique identity of IHRC and what it represents.

A well-designed logo and motto of IHRC would quickly attract viewers' attention and communicate its core value in an interesting way. It can pique the interest of the public and invite them to learn and know about the IHRC, it says.

The senior NAI official said this will be the first time the IHRC will get its own logo.

"Besides, adoption of a logo and motto for IHRC, the last session at Lucknow in December, 2022 had also passed a resolution on restoring the old nomenclature of the IHRC," he said.

The IHRC (later re-designated as Indian Historical Records Committee) was set up by the Government of India as a consulting body, whose opinion would carry weight with the public and which would make enquiries and recommendations regarding treatment of archives for historical study, among other mandates.

"So, now the IHRC, besides its old nomenclature, will get a visual identity too, which would encourage people to take interest in archives," the official said.

The National Archives of India is the repository of the non-current records of the government and is holding them in trust for the use of administrators and scholars.

It is an attached Office of the Ministry of Culture. It was set up on March 11, 1891 in Calcutta (now Kolkata) as the Imperial Record Department. With the subsequent transfer of the national capital from Calcutta to New Delhi in 1911, it was shifted to its present building in Lutyens' Delhi in 1926.

As the nodal agency for the implementation of the Public Records Act, 1993 and Public Record Rules, 1997, the National Archives of India is responsible for streamlining the management of records of central government and public sector undertakings.

The competition is open to all citizens of India around the world, reads the terms and conditions of the contest.

Citizens are invited to design or suggest a suitable logo with a motto evocative of the unique identity of the IHRC, the website says, adding, the selected entry will be awarded a cash prize of Rs 50,000.

All entries must be submitted to the creative corner section of MyGov website. Entries submitted through any other medium or mode would not be considered for evaluation, says the terms and conditions of the contest.

All the entries received by the National Archives of India would be initially shortlisted. Thereafter, all approved entries would be assessed for awards by the standing committee of the IHRC for final evaluation.

"Entries would be judged on the basis of elements of creativity, originality, composition, technical excellence, simplicity, artistic merit and visual impact, how well they communicate the theme of the scheme and popularity (number of likes on MyGov)," it says.

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