Gyan Bharatam: India-France MoU to Digitise Indic Manuscripts

India and France have agreed to work together on old Indian manuscripts kept in French collections. A Memorandum of Understanding was signed and exchanged in Paris on 26 October 2026 between the Ministry of Culture of the Government of India and the Bibliotheque nationale de France (BnF), which is the National Library of France. The agreement comes under the Gyan Bharatam Mission and covers preservation, digitisation, research and the wider sharing of manuscript and documentary heritage.

Who signed it

Shri Vivek Aggarwal, Secretary in the Ministry of Culture, signed for India, and Mr Gilles Pecout, President of the BnF, signed for France. On the Indian side the partnership draws in the Ministry of Culture through Gyan Bharatam, the National Archives of India in New Delhi and the National Library in Kolkata.

The five areas of cooperation

• Digitisation of manuscripts and collections
• Cross-sharing on the National Digital Repository
• Technology exchange between the two sides
• Conservation of fragile documents
• Research and development

The two sides will first identify and then digitise manuscripts and collections of Indic origin that the BnF holds. They will also trade expertise in digitisation and preservation technology, cataloguing standards, OCR and HTR tools that let machines read Indian scripts, digital humanities and the conservation of manuscripts. Joint workshops, capacity-building courses, research projects, publications, exhibitions and exchanges of scholars and experts are all planned under the agreement.

What the Gyan Bharatam Mission does

Gyan Bharatam is the Ministry of Culture's flagship mission for India's manuscript heritage. Its work runs from identification and documentation to conservation, digitisation, translation, research and dissemination. Its National Digital Repository is planned as a secure store for manuscripts of Indian origin and for material on Indian Knowledge Systems, whether held in India or abroad, with access given on a structured, permission-based footing for research and study.

The Ministry described the partnership as a step towards stronger international cooperation on preserving and studying India's manuscript heritage, while opening fresh ground for scholarly and technological collaboration between the two countries.