Chandigarh, Apr 2 (PTI) Haryana Chief Secretary Anurag Rastogi on Thursday directed officials to speed up the central government initiative to preserve, digitise, and disseminate knowledge contained in ancient manuscripts across all districts in a time-bound manner.
Reviewing the progress of the Gyan Bharatam initiative and the National Manuscript Survey in a meeting with deputy commissioners and senior officers, he said the aim of the programme is to preserve India’s traditional knowledge using modern technology.
Rastogi asked officials to carry out a proper survey of manuscripts available in institutions and with private holders such as temples, universities, libraries and individual collectors.
He stressed proper documentation, cataloguing and creation of digital records.
The chief secretary said the survey will include identification, verification, condition assessment, cataloguing, conservation and digitisation of manuscripts, followed by validation to ensure accuracy.
Highlighting the role of technology, he said digitisation will involve use of scanners, metadata creation and secure storage, along with tools like Optical Character Recognition (OCR) and Handwritten Text Recognition (HTR).
He also stressed training programmes to build skilled manpower, including training in ancient scripts.
The chief secretary said the survey will be completed within three months, from March to June 2026, with regular monitoring at the state and district levels.
Rastogi also called for public participation through outreach programmes and urged people to share information about manuscripts through the Gyan Bharatam platform.
Senior officials attended the meeting, while Additional Chief Secretary, Higher Education, A K Singh joined via videoconferencing. PTI VSD SKY SKY
This report is auto-generated from PTI news service. ThePrint holds no responsibility for its content.