Gyan Bharatam Mission: Check the Schedule, Significance & its Objectives

For thousands of years, India has been a cradle of ideas, learning, and creativity. From the gurukuls that trained thinkers to the world-renowned universities like Nalanda University of Bihar and Takshashila University of Tamil Nadu that welcomed scholars from across continents, ensured that education has always been at the heart of Indian civilisation. This legacy has always been carried forward through various means such as manuscripts, monuments and various cultural traditions, and they are the foundation of our identity. 

In today’s digital era, this knowledge tradition is always under a new way for finding life, and under the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Digital India initiative has transformed the way citizens interact with governance, education, and culture. 

From DigiLocker to UPI, from BharatNet bringing high-speed internet to villages to e-Hospital simplifying healthcare, digital platforms are empowering people at every level. Many technologies that are being used in India's digital system are now used to preserve and share India’s priceless heritage, ensuring manuscripts, archives, and museums remain accessible to future generations.

To carry this India Vision toward the growth of legacy in manuscript, the Ministry of Culture is hosting the first-ever Gyan Bharatam International Conference on “Reclaiming India’s Knowledge Legacy through Manuscript Heritage” from 11–13 September 2025 at Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi. 

The event will mark the launch of the Gyan Bharatam Mission—a nationwide movement dedicated to preserving, digitising, and globalising India’s vast manuscript heritage.

Source: PIB

What is the significance of the Gyan Bharatam Conference

The three-day gathering coincides with the anniversary of Swami Vivekananda’s 1893 Chicago address, when India’s voice of wisdom and spirituality reached the world stage. Similarly, this conference reaffirms India’s role as a civilisation of knowledge—now strengthened with modern technology.

With more than 1,100 participants, including scholars, researchers, students, cultural practitioners, and international experts, the conference aims to foster collaboration on manuscript preservation, digitisation, AI applications like Handwritten Text Recognition, translation, legal frameworks, and integration with education.

Source: PIB

Key Features

• Hybrid Format: Inaugural and valedictory sessions, 4 plenaries, 12 technical sessions.

• Participants: 95 academics, 22 administrators, 179 professionals, 112 research scholars, 230 students, 400+ cultural representatives.

• Speakers: 17 national and 17 international.

• Pre-conference Working Groups: Eight expert groups shaping strategies on conservation, law, technology, archaeology, and diplomacy.

• Gyan-Setu AI Challenge: A national innovation contest encouraging students, start-ups, and institutions to develop AI tools to make over 10 million manuscripts accessible worldwide.

Source: PIB

What are the Objectives of the Gyan Bharatam Mission?

Source: PIB

The Gyan Bharatam Mission (2024–31, outlay ₹482.85 crore) is more than preservation—it seeks to make manuscripts a living resource for education, research, and innovation. Its objectives include:

1. Identification & Documentation: Building a national register through Manuscript Resource Centres.

2. Conservation & Restoration: Strengthening centres for preventive and curative preservation.

3. Digitisation: This process will use AI, microfilming and metadata that will help create a National Digital Repository. 

4. Research & Translation: Publishing rare manuscripts and making them available in multiple languages.

5. Capacity Building: To educate and train a new generation in palaeography to help conservation and transcription. 

6. Technology Development: There is a need to upgrade the technologies by creating apps, cloud platforms, and AI tools for manuscripts.

7. Engagement & Incentives: There is a need to encourage custodians for their share collections with recognition and benefits.

8. Global Collaboration: Building international partnerships for manuscript retrieval and exchange.

9. Integration with Education: Implementing the manuscript knowledge into the NEP 2020 curricula and various other programs. 

When were the Foundations of the Gyan Bharatam Mission established?

The National Mission for Manuscripts (2003) already documented over 44 lakh manuscripts through its digital repository Kriti Sampada. It created many software programs like Manus Granhavali, which is partnered with libraries like Saraswati Mahal of Thanjavur, Rampur Raza, and Khuda Bakhsh of Patna, and these are all published in thousands of catalogues.

What is the relevance of the Gyan Bharatam Mission in today’s context?

Source: PIB

The Mission is known to reflect how India is extending the Digital India revolution into heritage. Just as UPI transformed payments and DIKSHA revolutionised education, Gyan Bharatam is using AI, cloud repositories, and multilingual platforms to make India’s manuscript heritage accessible to classrooms, libraries, and researchers worldwide.

By combining “Virasat aur Vikas” (heritage and progress), the Gyan Bharatam Mission ensures India’s civilisational wisdom guides its journey towards Viksit Bharat @2047.

In essence, the Gyan Bharatam Mission is not only meant for preserving manuscripts, but it is also about transforming them into a bridge that will offer the wisdom of the past to future generations.