About National Archives of India (NAI):
- The NAI, which functions under the Ministry of Culture, is the repository of all non-current government records, holding them for the use of administrators and scholars.
- It is the custodian of the records of enduring value of the Government of India.
- It is the biggest archival repository in South Asia.
- History:
- It was originally established as the Imperial Record Department on 11 March 1891 in Kolkata (Calcutta).
- It was transferred to New Delhi in 1911.
- The complete transfer of records from Calcutta to New Delhi was finalized in 1937.
- The NAI also serves as the nodal agency for implementing the Public Records Act, 1993, and the Public Record Rules, 1997.
- Currently, the National Archives of India holds over 34 crore pages of Public Records, including files, volumes, maps, treaties, rare manuscripts, cartographic records, parliamentary debates, censuses, travel accounts, proscribed literature, and government gazettes.
- A significant portion of its oriental records is in Sanskrit, Persian, Odia, and other languages.
- Access to the records in the NAI is governed by the provisions of the Public Records Rules, 1997.
- The NAI keeps and conserves records of the government of India and its organisations. It does not receive classified documents.
- It has one regional office at Bhopal and three Records Centers at Bhubaneswar, Jaipur, and Puducherry.
- Abhilekh PATAL:
- The Abhilekh PATAL (Portal for Access to Archives and Learning) is an initiative of NAI to make its rich treasure of Indian archival records available to all online.
- It is a full-featured web portal to access the NIA’s reference media and its digitized collections through the internet.
- It contains more than 2.7 million files held by the National Archives of India. The Digitized Collections contains over 71,792 digitized records for online access.
