India and France Sign Historic MoU to Preserve Manuscripts

Ministry of Culture, Government of India, signed a landmark Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Bibliothèque nationale de France (BnF), the National Library of France. The ceremony took place in Paris on October 26, 2026.

This bilateral initiative operates under India's flagship Gyan Bharatam Mission. Vivek Aggarwal, Secretary of the Ministry of Culture, signed the agreement for India. Mr. Gilles Pécout, President of BnF, represented the French institution.

The agreement establishes a long-term framework to identify, conserve, digitize, and research rare Indian manuscripts held in French collections.

Essential Cultural & Institutional Frameworks:

1. Gyan Bharatam Mission: A flagship program of the Ministry of Culture dedicated to identifying, cataloging, conserving, digitizing, translating, and publishing India's extensive manuscript heritage. It connects traditional Indian Knowledge Systems (IKS) with modern academic research.
2. National Digital Repository: A secure, centralized platform designed to host digital copies of Indian-origin manuscripts preserved across domestic and international libraries. It offers structured, permission-based access to scholars worldwide.
3. Bibliothèque nationale de France (BnF): The national library of France, located in Paris. It holds one of the world's most extensive collections of historic Asian manuscripts and classical Indian texts.
4. Key Domestic Institutions: The National Archives of India (New Delhi) and the National Library (Kolkata) serve as primary institutional executors alongside the Ministry of Culture.

Five Pillars of Bilateral Cooperation

The MoU structures its operational roadmap across five specialized technical domains:

1. Digitization: Systematic high-resolution scanning of rare Indian manuscripts preserved within BnF archives.
2. National Digital Repository Integration: Enabling resource sharing and cross-portal access for researchers via digital networks.
3. Technology Exchange: Developing and sharing specialized Optical Character Recognition (OCR) and Handwritten Text Recognition (HTR) software tailored for ancient Indian scripts.
4. Physical Conservation: Exchanging advanced chemical and paper preservation techniques to protect fragile palm-leaf, parchment, and paper manuscripts.
5. Research and Development: Conducting joint digital humanities projects, publishing academic findings, and organizing international exhibitions.

Academic Workshops and Capacity Building

The partnership establishes regular knowledge exchange channels between Indian and French archivists.

Both nations will organize joint training sessions, capacity-building programs, and scholarly exchanges. These initiatives focus on improving cataloging standards, paleographic analysis, and digital archival management.

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