In an unprecedented initiative, the ministry of culture will launch a three-month nationwide survey starting Monday to catalog India’s extensive manuscript heritage and establish a thorough digital archive of these historical assets, as per reports.

The exercise will take place nationwide, starting at the district level, with teams responsible for locating manuscripts stored in institutions, private collections, and with individual owners.

The objective is to create a unified database and establish a national digital repository on the main portal of the Gyan Bharatam Mission.

In conjunction with the initiative, manuscripts found throughout the survey will be geotagged to assist authorities in strategizing their conservation, preservation, and digitization.

Culture secretary Vivek Aggarwal stated that survey teams will utilize the Gyan Bharatam mobile app to submit information instantly.

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“The survey teams will employ the Gyan Bharatam app to input the information, and technology will be utilized in the future to facilitate digitization in a uniform format to ultimately ensure accessibility,” he stated.

The survey is in agreement with the vision stated in the New Delhi Declaration, which was adopted last September during the Gyan Bharatam Conference at Vigyan Bhawan.

During the event, Prime Minister Narendra Modi referred to the mission as the “declaration of India's culture, literature, and awareness.”

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Modi mentioned that India holds the largest collection of manuscripts globally — estimated to be around one crore — and stated that their digitization under the Gyan Bharatam Mission, introduced in the Union Budget for 2025–26, would aid in reducing “intellectual piracy.”

Aggarwal mentioned that committees were already established at both state and district levels to supervise the initiative, led by the relevant chief secretaries and district magistrates.

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The ministry is also focused on incorporating manuscripts that institutions and state governments have previously digitized into the central platform. These current digital collections are believed to surpass one million manuscripts.