Central Govt. Scheme of Digitization of Museums in India

Name of the scheme: Digitization of Museum Collection

Purpose: The main purpose of this scheme is to digitize management system of the museums over the country with a view to modernizing the collections management system of these museums.

Eligibility:

All museums under the State Governments, Registered Societies, voluntary institutions, trusts and NGO’s, which are registered under the Indian Societies Act of 1860 or a similar legislation, would be eligible for getting financial assistance under the scheme. However, the applicant institution should fulfil the following conditions:

• The applicant institution should have been in existence after registration for at least three years prior to the application. However, this condition can be relaxed in exceptional and deserving cases by the Secretary Culture upon the recommendation of the Expert Committee, the reasons for which should be recorded in writing.
• It should have a well-defined constitution and laid down rules for its functioning.
• It should be in ownership and possession of a substantial collection of objects (minimum 500 objects) of historical and/or cultural importance being displayed in the museum. The nature and number of objects possessed and displayed by the museum should be clearly indicated in the proposal while applying for financial assistance under the scheme.
• It should produce a certificate from the State Government (Department of Culture or equivalent) attesting to its satisfactory performance.
• It should not be run for any profit.
• The plan and estimates of the digitization work proposed to be undertaken should be submitted in detail duly authenticated by the District Information Officer of the National Informatics Centre (NIC).
• The applicant institutions must be willing to share their collections for online viewing over a website for public information.

Categorization of museums for financial support:

Museums have been classified into two categories-

• Category-I would be Government-owned State level museums and renowned museums with exclusive collections.
• Category-II would be all other museums.

Financial assistance:

• For Category-I museums, the maximum amount of financial assistance would be 80% of the project cost of digitalization, subject to a maximum of Rs. 50 lakhs per museum.
• For Category-II museums, the maximum amount would be 80% of the project cost of digitalization subject to a maximum of Rs. 25 lakhs per museum.
• The balance of 20% of the project cost would have to be arranged by the museum itself.
• In case of museums in North-Eastern region including Sikkim, the Central Government would provide up to 90% of the total project cost for Category-I and Category-II museums subject to the maximum financial limit as given above.

Scope of work for financial grant:

• Digitization of collections management system of the museum by procuring and using appropriate standard software being used by renowned Museums in the country.
• Photography of art works of museum for digitization purposes.
• Creation or upgradation of website of a museum.
• Creation of a digital catalogue of works available in the museum for public dissemination through the museum website.
• Procurement of hardware like servers, clients, LAN, scanners, cameras etc., for digitization works for the museum.
• Development of an online museum library.
• Development of interactive information kiosks for the museum.

How to apply?

Contact below for further details-

Section officer, Museum-I Section Room No 333A-C wing, Shastri Bhawan, New Delhi-110115 Phone No: 23387108