be used in gardens by developing base nurseries at Delhi, Agra, Srirangapatnam and
Bhubaneshwar. The Epigraphy Branch at Mysore carries out research work in Sanskrit and
Dravidian languages while the one at Nagpur carries out research work in Arabic and Persian.
Relevant Website: www.asi.nic.in
National Mission on Monuments and Antiquities
The National Mission on Monuments and Antiquities (NMMA) was launched in 2007 with
the objective to prepare a National database on Built Heritage and Sites (BH&S) and antiquities
from different sources and museums during the XIth Five Year Plan for information and
dissemination to planners, researchers etc., and better management of such cultural resources.
Keeping in view the magnitude of the work involved, and as per recommendations of National
Productivity Council in its 3rd Party Evaluation Report, NMMA has been made a Division of
Archaeological Survey of India.
As part of the mandate, NMMA has to prepare two national registers viz., (i) National
Register on Built Heritage and Sites and (ii) National Register on Antiquities. About 2.00 lakh
data on Built Heritages and Sites has been documented from various secondary sources. NMMA
has documented data of approximately 15.00 lakh antiquities so far from different sources.
National Mission for Manuscripts
The National Mission for Manuscripts (NMM) was launched in 2003 with the Indira Gandhi
National Centre for Arts (IGNCA) as the nodal agency to reclaim India’s inheritance of
knowledge contained in the vast treasure of manuscripts. There are Manuscripts Resource
Centres (MRC), Manuscripts Conservation Centres (MCC), Manuscripts Partner Centres (MPC)
and Manuscripts Conservation Partner Centres (MCPC) all over India to locate, to document, to
conserve and to digitize the tangible heritage of India.
Major activities of NMM are documentation of manuscripts through survey, conservation of
manuscripts through preventive and curative methods, training courses and workshops on
conservation-methods, manuscriptology and paleography workshops for teaching ancient scripts,
digitization of manuscripts for archival and easy access to the knowledge-base, dissemination of
knowledge contained in the manuscripts through publications, outreach programme to create
public awareness of the importance of manuscripts.
National Museum
The National Museum, functions as a subordinate office under the Ministry of Culture since
1960, houses over 2.6 lakh art objects dating from pre-historic era onwards. The main activities
of the museum are as follows: exhibitions, reorganization/modernization of galleries, educational
activities and outreach programmes, public relations, publications, photo documentation,
summer holiday programmes, memorial lectures, museum corner, Photo unit, modelling unit,
library, conservation laboratory and workshops.
National Gallery of Modern Art
The National Gallery of Modern Art (NGMA), New Delhi was founded in 1954 to promote
and develop contemporary Indian Art. It houses 17,858 works of art, representing about 1,748