India's Ministry of Culture Digitizes Cultural Heritage for Public Access

The Ministry of Culture is rapidly using digital technology to preserve and make India's cultural heritage accessible to the general public. In a written reply in the Lok Sabha, Union Minister of Culture and Tourism Gajendra Singh Shekhawat informed that several major steps have been taken to digitally preserve museums, manuscripts and archaeological heritage across the country. The Ministry has used the JATAN software developed by C-DAC, Pune for digitization of museum objects. Through this, digital records of millions of objects of eight national level museums, two museums of Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) and Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Museum, Pune have been created. So far, a record of about 4.79 lakh artefacts has been created, out of which more than 3.36 lakh items are available online. This is about 70% of the total collection. According to the Ministry, the campaign to preserve the country's ancient manuscripts under the Gyanam Mission is also progressing rapidly.