PM Modi to launch 'Gyan Bharatam' portal at international manuscript conference on Friday

New Delhi, Sep 11 (PTI) Prime Minister Narendra Modi will address the international conference on India's manuscript heritage on September 12 and also launch 'Gyan Bharatam' portal, a dedicated digital platform to accelerate manuscript digitisation, preservation and public access, his office said on Thursday.

The three-day event, which began on Thursday, is being held at Vigyan Bhawan here with the theme 'Reclaiming India's Knowledge Legacy through Manuscript Heritage'.

The conference brings together leading scholars, conservationists, technologists, and policy experts to deliberate on pathways for revitalising India's unparalleled manuscript wealth and to place it at the heart of a global knowledge dialogue, the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) said in a statement.

Prime Minister Modi will participate in the conference on September 12 and address the gathering on the occasion, it said.

He will also launch the 'Gyan Bharatam' portal, a dedicated digital platform to accelerate manuscript digitisation, preservation and public access, it added.

An exhibition showcasing rare manuscripts and scholarly presentations on critical areas such as manuscript conservation, digitisation technologies, metadata standards, legal frameworks, cultural diplomacy and decipherment of ancient scripts has also been hosted at the venue.

Union Culture Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat attended the opening session of the conference.

In his address, he said India is going through an "era of cultural renaissance" and asserted that the Gyan Bharatam Mission has been envisioned to preserve the country's manuscript heritage.

The conference aims to build an "alliance of all custodians" of old manuscripts in India and eventually create a countrywide ecosystem for their preservation and knowledge dissemination under the aegis of the Gyan Bharatam project.

India has one of the richest collections of ancient manuscripts in the world, with nearly 10 million texts that hold the country's traditional knowledge and cultural heritage.

The government has launched the Gyan Bharatam Mission as a major initiative under the Ministry of Culture. It aims to survey, document, conserve, digitise and make accessible more than 1 crore manuscripts located at academic institutions, museums, libraries and private collections across India. PTI KND DIV DIV