Now, E-Museums

Over 11,000 rare artefacts and artworks from across 10 government museums go digital.

In a first-of-its-kind initiative, government museums will digitise their collections under a common website. On Tuesday, Minister of State (Independent Charge) Culture and Tourism, Shripad Naik, launched the national portal http://www.museumsofindia.gov.in at Shastri Bhavan.

Among the 10 museums chosen are National Museum (Delhi); Victoria Memorial Hall (Kolkata); Archaeological Museum (Goa) and Allahabad Museum. More than 11,000 exhibits including coins, sculptures, paintings, currency notes, porcelain objects and terracotta works will be made available for online viewing.

Some of these museums have their individual web links too, but a compiled national database will give fillip to their individual footfall as well. Says an official from Hyderabad’s Salar Jung Museum, “This has been happening all over the world but is a first for India. We are hoping it inspires foreigners as well as domestic tourists visiting Hyderabad to step into our gallery.”

In the next couple of years, entire collections of all museums falling under the purview of the Ministry of Culture and the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) will be digitised. In 2014-15, the plan will be implemented in seven more museums including Ratnagiri Museum, Halebidu Museum, Lothal Museum, and Fort St George Museum (Chennai).

Divya A

Divya A reports on travel, tourism, culture and social issues - not necessarily in that order - for The Indian Express. She's been a journalist for over a decade now, working with Khaleej Times and The Times of India, before settling down at Express. Besides writing/ editing news reports, she indulges her pen to write short stories. As Sanskriti Prabha Dutt Fellow for Excellence in Journalism, she is researching on the lives of the children of sex workers in India. ... Read More

Stay updated with the latest - Click here to follow us on Instagram