PRESS RELEASE ON 393rd REPORT OF THE DEPARTMENT-RELATED PARLIAMENTARY STANDING COMMITTEE ON TRANSPORT, TOURISM AND CULTURE

The 393rd Report of the Department-related Parliamentary Standing Committee on Transport, Tourism and Culture, presented on August 12, 2026, marks a watershed moment in India's approach to cultural heritage preservation. Chaired by Shri Sanjay Kumar Jha (Rajya Sabha MP), the report titled 'From Manuscript to Mission: Preserving, Mapping and Sustaining India's Cultural Heritage in the Age of Artificial Intelligence' represents a paradigm shift from traditional conservation methods to a technology-driven, mission-mode approach. This initiative emerges against the backdrop of India's estimated 10 million manuscripts — one of the world's largest collections — scattered across institutions, private collections, and overseas repositories, with a significant portion at risk due to environmental degradation, neglect, and lack of systematic documentation. The constitutional foundation for this endeavour lies in Article 51A(f) of the Constitution of India, which mandates every citizen to value and preserve the rich heritage of our composite culture. Additionally, Article 49 directs the State to protect monuments, places, and objects of artistic or historic interest declared by Parliament to be of national importance. The Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains Act, 1958 (amended in 2010), and the Antiquities and Art Treasures Act, 1972, provide the legislative framework, but the Committee's report goes beyond statutory compliance to propose a visionary integration of cutting-edge science with traditional knowledge systems. Key stakeholders include the Ministry of Culture (nodal ministry), Ministry of Science and Technology (for accelerator laboratories and multispectral imaging), Ministry of Ayush (for manuscript-pharmacopoeia concordance), Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (for AI/ML infrastructure and ONDC integration), and state governments (for district salvage annexes). The involvement of national scientific agencies like ISRO, DST, and CSIR laboratories underscores the whole-of-government approach. The Akshar Mitra citizen platform democratises participation, aligning with the Digital India mission and the principle of Jan Bhagidari. The report's significance is multidimensional. Economically, it unlocks the potential of knowledge tourism circuits linked to PM Gati Shakti National Master Plan, creating livelihoods for artisans through ONDC with authenticity credentials. Socially, it empowers communities by recording oral heritage through Indian-language speech recognition and preserving endangered scripts with fonts, keyboards, and voices. Scientifically, extracting astronomical and weather observations as open datasets contributes to Indian science, while the concordance with Ayush pharmacopoeia bridges traditional medicine with modern regulatory frameworks. Strategically, the virtual rebinding of scattered manuscripts and efforts to repatriate overseas holdings enhance India's soft power and cultural diplomacy. The integration with PM Gati Shakti — India's National Master Plan for multi-modal connectivity — is particularly innovative. By overlaying cultural and manuscript layers on infrastructure planning, the report ensures heritage preservation is mainstreamed into development planning at the district level. The guardianship framework with machine-graded risk registers, preservation kits, and district salvage annexes wired into national alerting infrastructure creates a resilient, decentralised preservation architecture. Future implications are profound. The federated learning model for restricted collections could become a global template for sensitive data sharing. The international image interoperability framework (IIIF) adoption positions India as a leader in digital heritage standards. The standing programme for corpus reunification may accelerate manuscript repatriation negotiations. Most critically, this report transforms heritage preservation from a custodial duty into a dynamic, AI-powered knowledge mission — aligning with the vision of Viksit Bharat @2047 where cultural heritage becomes a driver of innovation, economy, and national pride.