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Take a look at the essential events, concepts, terms, quotes, or phenomena every day and brush up your knowledge. Here’s your UPSC Current Affairs knowledge nugget for today on Gyan Bharatam Mission.
Calling Indian manuscripts an “unparalleled civilisational treasure”, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday underscored the importance of digitising them to curb “intellectual piracy”. In this context, let’s know about the Gyan Bharatam International Conference and Gyan Bharatam Mission.
1. Recently, the Gyan Bharatam International Conference was organised by the Ministry of Culture in New Delhi. The three-day event was attended by around 1,100 participants, including conservation experts, scholars, historians, academics and custodians of manuscripts.
2. Notably, the first-ever international manuscript heritage conference—‘Reclaiming India’s knowledge legacy through manuscript heritage’—coincided with the 132nd anniversary of Swami Vivekananda’s historic address at the Parliament of the World’s Religions held in Chicago in 1893.
3. At the conference highlighting the importance of manuscripts, the PM said manuscripts that have the footprint of the progress path of entire mankind and reflect humanity’s journey, encompassing philosophy, science, medicine, metaphysics, art, astronomy and architecture.
“The Gilgit Manuscript, for instance, provides an authentic history of Kashmir. All these manuscripts have the footprint of the progress path of the entire mankind. Indian manuscripts reflect humanity’s journey, encompassing philosophy, science, medicine, metaphysics, art, astronomy, and architecture,” he said.
4. The Gyan Bharatam Conference also marked the formal launch of the Gyan Bharatam Mission.
1. It was in the Union Budget 2025-26 that Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had announced a special mission for the survey, documentation, and conservation of India’s manuscript heritage.
2. Launched as the ‘Gyan Bharatam Mission’, it intends to cover more than one crore manuscripts, officials say, adding that while the project will be headquartered in New Delhi, as part of the Ministry of Culture, regional centres will be set up across all states to ensure seamless coordination.
3. With the Rs 400-crore Gyan Bharatam project, the government is aiming to create an institution on the lines of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) for the preservation and interpretation of India’s manuscripts.
4. Gyan Bharatam replaces the existing National Manuscripts Mission, which was launched in 2003, aiming to digitise all manuscripts in the country, but was moving at a slow pace.
5. Gyan Bharatam Mission seeks to inspire scholarly innovation, strengthen civilisational pride, harness technological empowerment, and expand cultural diplomacy, keeping in mind India’s vision of becoming an intellectual leader globally.
Objectives of Gyan Bharatam Mission
6. The mission has been designed as a comprehensive plan to revive India’s manuscript legacy by combining preservation, digitisation, scholarship, and global accessibility. Its objectives are:
(i) Identification and Documentation: A nationwide network of Manuscript Resource Centres (MRCs) will be established to systematically identify, document, and catalogue ancient manuscripts scattered across institutions and private collections. MRCs will creating an authentic and reliable national register.
(ii) Conservation and Restoration: Through strengthened Manuscript Conservation Centres (MCCs), manuscripts will be safeguarded using preventive and curative conservation methods.
(iii) Digitisation and Repository Creation: Manuscripts will be digitised using AI-assisted Handwritten Text Recognition (HTR), microfilming, and cloud-based metadata systems. This will help in the creation of a National Digital Repository, designed to be globally accessible.
(iv) Research, Translation and Publication: Rare and unpublished manuscripts will be revived via critical editions, facsimiles, and translations, making them accessible in multiple languages.
(v) Capacity Building and Training: Structured training programmes and workshops in transcription, palaeography, conservation, and manuscript studies will be organised to prepare a new generation of experts.
(vi) Technology Development: The Mission will also focus on building digital tools for manuscripts, including mobile applications, secure cloud storage solutions, and platforms based on the International Image Interoperability Framework.
1. The Ministry of Culture has also launched Gyan-Setu, a National AI Innovation Challenge under the Gyan Bharatam Mission.
2. The initiative focuses on empowering youth and innovators to use technology for safeguarding heritage. With over 10 million manuscripts spanning subjects from philosophy and medicine to governance and the arts, the challenge aims to harness AI to make this legacy more accessible and meaningful for the world.
3. By opening participation to students, researchers, institutions, and start-ups, Gyan-Setu positions heritage preservation as a collective national endeavour.
1. Digvijay Divas is observed annually to mark Swami Vivekananda’s historic speech at the World Parliament of Religions in Chicago on September 11, 1893. The day provides an occasion to reflect on the enduring relevance of his ideas for rethinking India’s engagement with the conflict-ridden world.
2. Vivekananda’s speech at Chicago was not just a spiritual call for tolerance and mutual respect, but had a profound impact on national imagination, politics, education, and international relations as well.
3. Beginning with the historic salutation, “Sisters and Brothers of America”, Vivekananda, in his first address at the World Parliament of Religions, articulated his belief in a universal religion and affirmed all religions as true. Tolerance and universal acceptance were two predominant themes in his speeches.
4. Vivekananda was hailed as the great champion of India’s spiritual regeneration following his historic speech in Chicago and the subsequent three years of lectures and teachings abroad. His call for spiritual unity gave vital momentum to the idea of spiritual nationalism in the early phase of India’s national movement.
5. Being one of the first exponents of spiritual nationalism, Vivekananda instilled in the masses a sense of national pride in India’s ancient civilisation while envisioning a spiritual oneness.
6. As an exponent of practical Vedanta, he prioritised selfless service over any social divisions that often lead to social conflicts. He constantly reminded the masses that brotherhood should define human relationships within the nation. The lower castes, poor, illiterate, ignorant, as well as cobblers and sweepers, he insisted, are bound by the spirit of brotherhood in India.
Consider the following statements, with reference to the Gyan Bharatam Mission:
1. The government is aiming to create an institution on the lines of the Archaeological Survey of India for the preservation and interpretation of India’s manuscripts.
2. The mission intends to cover more than one crore manuscripts.
3. It replaces the existing National Manuscripts Mission.
How many of the statements given above are correct?
(a) Only one
(b) Only two
(c) All three
(d) None
|
Answer Key Story continues below this ad |
| (c) |
(Sources: Gyan Bharatam Mission: Manuscript heritage conference begins tomorrow, pib.gov.in, Why Vivekananda’s Chicago speech marked India’s first moral presence in global discourse)
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