Gyan Bharatam International Conference held in New Delhi; Gyan Bharatam Mission & Portal Launched

In September 2025, the Ministry of Culture organised the first-ever ‘Gyan Bharatam’ International Conference on ‘Reclaiming India’s Knowledge Legacy through Manuscript Heritage’ from September 11th–13th, 2025 at Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi (Delhi).

Key People:

Session Leadership: The session was chaired by Union Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, Ministry of Culture as the Chief Guest (CG). Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi also addressed the conference.

Dignitaries Present: The event was attended by Yaduvir Singh Rawat, Director General (DG) of Archaeological Survey of India (ASI); Anirban Dash, Project Director of Gyan Bharatam and Director of National Mission on Manuscripts (NMM); along with other representatives from the Ministry of Culture.

About Gyan Bharatam Mission (GBM):

Gyan Bharatam: First announced in the Union Budget 2025–26 and formally launched at the Gyan Bharatam International Conference, this flagship national initiative is dedicated to preserving, digitising, and promoting India’s manuscript heritage.

Objective: Identify and register ancient manuscripts, conserve them with scientific and traditional methods, create a globally accessible National Digital Repository (NDR), train new experts, develop International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) based digital tools, encourage custodians through certification and revenue-sharing, and foster international collaborations for retrieval, digitisation, and knowledge exchange.

Financial Outlay: The Central Sector Scheme (CSS) has been allocated Rs. 482.85 crore (2024–31), with over 44.07 lakh manuscripts already documented in the Kriti Sampada digital repository.

• For the current financial year 2025–26 (FY26), Rs.60 crore has been allocated for this purpose.

Portal: During the conference PM Narendra Modi launched the Gyan Portal or GBM Portal, a digital platform to provide unified access to India’s manuscript heritage and knowledge resources.

National Mission for Manuscripts (NMM): Established in 2003 to preserve India’s manuscript heritage, NMM now forms the strong foundation of the Gyan Bharatam Mission (GBM).

About ‘Gyan Bharatam’ International Conference:

Structure: Held in hybrid mode with inaugural & valedictory sessions, 4 plenaries, 12 technical sessions, and participation from 500 delegates & 75 experts.

Participation: The participants comprise over 95 academics, 22 administrators from government and private sectors, 179 professionals, 112 research scholars, 230 students, and more than 400 representatives from diverse fields.

Pre-conference Working groups: In anticipation of the Gyan Bharatam International Conference, eight specialised working groups have been established, bringing together distinguished scholars, researchers, and cultural dignitaries.

Launch of

Gyan-Setu: The Ministry of Culture has launched Gyan-Setu, a National AI (Artificial Intelligence) Innovation Challenge under the GBM.

• It is a national innovation contest encouraging students, start-ups, and institutions to develop AI tools to make over 10 million (mn) manuscripts accessible worldwide.
• Winners: The following were the winners of the Gyan-Setu:
• 1st Position – R. Ramakrishnan, CEO (Chief Executive Officer) of Inverse AI
• 2nd Position – Prof. Ravi Kiran
• 3rd Position – Venkat Ravi Teja Vila and Dr. Arjun Ghosh

Delhi Declaration: The declaration, adopted at the closing of the three-day conference, resolved to acquire and repatriate original manuscripts or secure their digital copies from abroad, ensuring access for research and national pride.
About Ministry of Culture:
Union Minister- Gajendra Singh Shekhawat (Constituency-Jodhpur, Rajasthan)
Minister of State (MoS)- Rao Inderjit Singh (Constituency- Gurugram, Haryana)