New Delhi, Aug 1 (PTI) The National Archives of India has initiated a project this year for digitisation of tentatively 30 crore pages of all its record holdings at present in a span of two years, the government informed the Rajya Sabha on Thursday.
Union Culture Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat in a written response to a query also said the National Archives of India (NAI) has already completed phase-I of digitisation of 4.5 crore pages of its records in the last three years.
“In 2024, the NAI has initiated another project for digitisation of 30 crore pages (tentatively) of all its record holdings at present, in a span of two years,” he said.
National Archives is the custodian of the non-current records of the Government of India and holds them in trust for the use of administrators and researchers as per the provision of Public Record Act 1993.
As a premier archival institution, the NAI plays a key role in guiding and shaping archival consciousness. Apart from the vast collection of public records, it has a rich and ever-growing collection of private papers of eminent Indians from all walks of life, who have made significant contributions to the country.
The Union minister in his response added that digitised scanned documents are in the format of portable document format for archival (PDF-A), joint photographic experts group (JPEG) and tagged image file format (TIFF).
Digitised documents in PDF-A are uploaded on the centralised portal hosted on hot cloud storage and PDF-A, JPEG and TIFF are also stored on archival cloud storage. One copy is stored on Linear Tape Operation (LTO) as a backup, he added.
All digitised documents are available freely for access to the public on the search portal www.abhilekh-patal.in.
In future versions of the search portal, the NAI would explore the use of artificial intelligence (AI) and other latest technology available from time to time for enhancing the search and viewing experience for the public at large, he said.
In a separate query, the Union minister was asked whether it is a fact that many monuments have been “delisted” by the Archeological Survey of India recently.
“Exercising powers conferred under section 35 of the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains Act, 1958 the Central Government has issued a notification on 8th March, 2024 giving notice of its intention that 18 monuments have ceased to be of national importance.
“As per 7th Schedule of the Constitution, monuments other than those of national importance comes under State subject,” he said in his response.
The government has initiated the process to declare a set of 18 centrally-protected monuments located in Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and a few other states as no more of national importance, according to the March 8 official gazette notification.
It contains a list (‘schedule’) of monuments that include ‘Kos Minar No.13’ at Mujessar village in Haryana, Bara Khamba Cemetery in Delhi, Gunner Burkill’s Tomb at Rangoon in Jhansi, Cemetery at Gaughat in Lucknow, and tablet on the Treasury building in Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh.
In response to another query, Shekhawat, who also holds the portfolio of tourism, said, according to the Travel and Tourism Development Index (TTDI) 2024 report published by the World Economic Forum (WEF), India is ranked 39th among 119 countries.
In the previous index published in 2021, India was ranked 54th. However, due to a revision in the WEF’s methodology, India’s 2021 rank was adjusted to 38th place, he said. PTI KND AS AS
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