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In News
- The National Archives of India (NAI) does not have records of 1962, 1965, and 1971 wars, or even of the Green Revolution.
National Archives of India (NAI)
- About:
- Originally established as the Imperial Record Department in 1891 in Calcutta, the capital of British India.
- The NAI is the repository of all non-current government records, holding them for the use of administrators and scholars.
- The NAI is now located in Delhi.
- Functions under: the Ministry of Culture.
- Its Role & Significance:
- It keeps and conserves records of the government and its organisations only.
- It does not receive classified documents.
- As per the Public Records Act, 1993, various central ministries and departments are supposed to transfer records more than 25 years old to the NAI, unless they pertain to classified information.
- However, it is up to the respective ministries and departments to ascertain what is classified information.
- Abhilekh Patal portal:
- NAI has also made efforts to make available all the records digitally — on the newly created portal.
- However, five years later, it’s a work in progress and the entire holdings haven’t been digitised so far, with 1,27,136 records available for online access.
- Concerns:
- There are in all 151 ministries and departments, and the NAI has only records of 64 agencies, including 36 ministries and departments.
- Several Union ministries and departments have not shared their records with NAI. The country is losing its history.
- Various ministries and administrations come up with their own definitions of what is classified and what is non-current.
- Opacity and lack of accessibility are just a few of the issues regularly faced by researchers at the archives.
Source: IE
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