The National Archives of India (NAI) is the custodian of the records of enduring value of the Government of India. Established on 11 March, 1891 at Kolkata as the Imperial Record Department, it is one of the biggest archival repositories in South Asia. It has vast corpus of public records which include files, volumes, maps, bills assented by the President, treaties, rare manuscripts oriental records, private papers, cartographic records, important collection of Gazettes and Gazetteers, Census records, Assembly and Parliament debates, proscribed literature, travel accounts etc.

The total number of collections of records in the custody of NAI is 34 crore pages (approximately), consisting of records of various Ministries, Departments as well as collections of private and oriental records.

2.25 crore (approximately) sheets of records have been estimated to be highly brittle records and necessary action for repair and rehabilitation of these records is being done through an outsourced agency in a mission mode.

As on date NAI has digitized approximately 5,50,58,949 pages of the records and 28,49,41,031 pages of records are yet to be digitized.

All the requisite conservation procedures which are followed around the world like Preventive, Curative and Restorative conservation are being carried out for the repair and rehabilitation of the archival records under the custody of National Archives of India.

In the “School of Archival Studies” of NAI, training is imparted to candidates for the repair and rehabilitation of records under one year diploma course in Archives and Records Management. Short term course on ‘servicing of records and conservation of books, manuscripts and archives’ is also conducted by NAI. In addition to the above, National Archives of India in collaboration with Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship has provided training on conservation and preservation of records to 900 candidates.

This information was given by Union Minister for Culture and Tourism Shri Gajendra Singh Shekhawat in a written reply in Lok Sabha today.

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