Culture Ministry Holds Creative India Meet at Bharat Mandapam

The Ministry of Culture held a conference titled Creative India: Collective Possibilities at Bharat Mandapam, New Delhi on 13 November 2026. Union Minister for Culture Gajendra Singh Shekhawat inaugurated it. The gathering brought together the Centre and the states, the Ministry's own institutions, industry, philanthropic bodies, the creative community and international partners to work out how India's cultural wealth can add more to growth, livelihoods and the country's standing abroad.

What was said

The Culture Minister said that the creative power of India is its real power, that India is a living civilisation whose creativity belongs to every region and every generation, and that the task now is to connect that talent with opportunity. Culture Secretary Vivek Aggarwal described the government's role as that of a catalyst, adding that a Creative Economy Division has been set up in the Ministry precisely to build such partnerships. Joint Secretary (Creative Economy) Inderjeet Singh placed culture at the centre of the development agenda and described the Ministry's 43 organisations, with more than 3,600 protected monuments besides museums, archives, Akademis and Zonal Cultural Centres, as the public infrastructure of the creative economy.

Partnerships already running

• The National Culture Fund has completed 66 projects with 39 partners since 1996.
• The Adopt a Heritage programme engages partners at 66 monuments.
• The sacred Piprahwa relics were brought back through a partnership with the Godrej Industries Group.
• Sabhyata Foundation has brought cultural evenings to Purana Qila in Delhi.
• The India Pavilion at Venice in 2026 was put together with the Nita Mukesh Ambani Cultural Centre and the Serendipity Arts Foundation.
• A new agreement with Google Arts and Culture will take India's heritage to audiences across the world.

The four sessions

The day was built around four sessions: Investing in Culture, Culture-Led Spaces, Culturepreneurs, and Technology and Communication. Between them they examined trusted routes for philanthropy and private capital, monuments, museums and festivals treated as living destinations, the path from craft livelihood to enterprise for artisans and designers, and new ways of carrying Indian knowledge and narratives to the world on India's own terms. The Ministry said it wants a common and evolving framework for the creative economy, resting on measurable outcomes, simpler facilitation and structured routes for capital into culture, and invited state governments, cultural institutions, industry, philanthropy, creators and international partners to shape that framework with it.