The National Archives of India (NAI) has initiated the digitisation of over 70 lakh pages of the archival holdings of the Puducherry Record Centre for uploading them on the web portal of Abhilekh Patal. The NAI plans to complete the digitisation within two years to enable any user, including scholars and researchers to requisition all records and access them on the portal, Union Minister of Culture and Tourism Gajendra Singh Shekhawat said in the Lok Sabha on Monday.
In his reply to an unstarred question raised by Villupuram Member of Parliament D. Ravikumar, the Minister said the work commenced on March 28, 2024 and the whole value chain started from the process of preservation, conservation and digitisation to make it available to the end user.
Replying to another question, he said that the new preservation techniques were being adopted to modernise the Puducherry Record Centre in a scientific manner. Research rooms, conservation rooms, digitisation rooms, and all repositories were being modernised from time to time, he added.
In addition, steps have been taken to acquire additional private archival collections, palm leaf manuscripts and historical documents through donation from individuals and organisations, he said.
Published – March 25, 2025 10:09 pm IST