The Union Minister of State for Culture (Independent Charge), Tourism (Independent Charge) and Civil Aviation, Dr. Mahesh Sharma inaugurated the curtain raiser of the year long celebrations of 125th Anniversary of National Archives of India(NAI) in New Delhi today (11.03.2014). The National Archives of India was established on 11th March, 1891 at Calcutta as the Imperial Records Department.
Speaking on the occasion, Dr. Mahesh Sharma said that history is very important for a country because it has the potential to contribute to nation building. It is due to this reason that we must make the valuable age-old records available with us transparent and accessible to the people, the Minister explained. The Minister said that these archives and records contain a wealth of knowledge and through them we can take the cultural heritage of the country to the people.
Dr Mahesh Sharma said that this is the era of E-Governance and the digitization of records will help to preserve these archives over the future generation. Not only this, digitization also helps to add to the ease of accessing these records, he said. The Minister added that once these records are digitized, it will facilitate the introduction of our cultural heritage to the youth of the country.
The Minister inaugurated i) A Logo for the 125th Year Celebration of the National Archives of India; ii) an Online Search Portal entitled Abhilekh-PATAL, which puts the catalogue of over 2 million records in the public domain together with over 2000 digital images of records; iii) a Virtual Exhibition: Gandhi-Mandela that was displayed at Johannesburg as a part of the ‘Festival of India in South Africa’ and iv) 3 New publications of the department on the occasion.
Secretary Culture, Shri Ravindra Singh said that the computerization of records is proceeding at a rapid pace. Under the Swachha Bharat Mission started by the Prime Minister, nearly 6 lakh files were transferred to NAI and several more lakh files are also in the process of being transferred, he added.
Dr. Tridip Suhurd, Director, Sabarmati Ashram Preservation and Memorial Trust, Ahmedabad delivered the 125th Foundation Day Lecture entitled ‘From Scriptorium to Variorum: The Journey towards Digital Archives on the occasion.
An exhibition entitled Treasures of National Archives of India has also been organised in the National Archives Museum premises which will remain open for public till 10 April 2015.During the yearlong celebrations, the National Archives of India has plans to release a series of publications, launch the renovated National Archives Museum, organise archival exhibitions to raise the archival awareness amongst masses, arrange workshops and seminars for the professionals to highlight the role of Archives in Society as well as in the administration.
National Archives of India was established on 11 March 1891 at Calcutta as the Imperial Record Department, and later shifted to New Delhi following the transfer of the capitalfrom Calcutta to Delhi in 1911. The present building of the National Archives of India was constructed in 1926, and the transfer of all records was completed in 1937. Today, it has one Regional Office at Bhopal and three Records Centres at Bhubaneswar, Jaipur and Puducherry.
This department is the custodian of the non-current records of the Government of India and is holding them in trust for the use of the records creators and the users at large. Archives are the priceless documentary heritage of any nation and as the premier archival institution in the country, and play a key role in guiding and shaping the development of archives both at the national as well as international level.
For the images of fascinating documents from various collections housed in this premier institution of the nation, please visit the face book page (https://www.facebook.com/pages/National-Archives-of-India)
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