National mission for manuscripts that become autonomous

The NMM has documented more than five million manuscripts throughout the country. | Photo credit: Ma Sriram

Steps have been initiated for the National Mission for Manuscripts (NMM) to be autonomous, and the center allocates almost ₹ 500 million rupees in the next six years separately to the institution through a special finance committee.

The NMM was established in February 2003 by the Ministry of Tourism and Culture. A unique project in its program and mandate, the mission seeks to discover and preserve the vast richness of the manuscript of India.

As of this year, the NMM has been put again under a scheme of the central sector. For the schemes of the central sector, all initiatives are sponsored and implemented by the central agencies.

The NMM so far worked as part of the National Arts Center of Indira Gandhi (IGNCA). But for January to March, the funds for institutions were enrupted through Sahitya Akademi.

The Special Finance Committee has assigned an amount of ₹ 491.66 million rupees to the body until 2031.

Budget proposal

However, the sources said it was not yet clear if the new ‘Gyan Bharatam Mission’ for manuscripts, announced in the Budget of the Union last week would be part of the NMM or would be a separate entity.

According to the budget document, the Gyan Bharatam mission intends to cover more than one crore manuscripts. He would carry out the “survey, documentation and conservation” of the manuscript heritage of India with academic institutions, museums, libraries and private collectors, said Nirmala Sitharaman, Minister of Finance of the Union, in her budget speech on February 1.

The Hindu He had reported last October that the Ministry of Culture of the Union was ready to “revive and relaunch” the NMM, and was reflecting on the formation of an autonomous body to help preserve ancient texts in India.

According to the Ministry of Culture, the NMM has documented around 5.2 million manuscripts throughout the country. It has preserved 90 million folios of manuscripts and manuscripts of 3.5 digitized Lakh containing 3.5 million pages.