Select Activities of National Archives of India

for the Month of August 2011

 

1.      Special Projects addressing the Critical Areas of National Archives of India:

A.     Appraisal and Transfer of Non-Current Records of Ministries and Departments:   24 Archival Assistants have been deployed to the following Ministries/ Departments for appraisal and transfer of Public Records to National Archives of India: Rehabilitation Division, Jaisalmer House (Ministry of Home Affairs); Freedom Fighters Division, Jaisalmer House (Ministry of Home Affairs); Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (Ministry of Commerce). The team appraised 26,537 files from the non-current records of the aforesaid Ministries/Departments. Under this project a total number of 21,401 files were transferred from various Ministries/Departments to National Archives of India for permanent retention. Transfer list of 12,748 files were entered on Archival Information Management System (AIMS) for online referencing.

 

B.      Processing and Accessioning of Records: 14 Archival Assistants and 2 Menders appointed for the Project have physically checked 12,124 files belonging to ten Ministries/ Departments. Besides, they have arranged 5,154 files of eight Ministries/ Departments, amalgamated 53 files from M/o Home Affairs, Judicial Division, M/o Home Assairs, Indian Citizenship Section with their respective previous series, and wrote nomenclatures of three Ministries/ Departments on 2260 files and 9 bundles. Docketing and stitching work for 4034 files (1885-1987) was carried out by the menders.  Hardbound volumes of Transfer lists (23 transfer lists in total) of three Ministries/ Departments were prepared. The department has received a total number of 21,401 files from three Ministries/ Departments.

 

C.      Preparation of Reference Media of Public Records:  18 Archival Assistants are slot in for this project. A total of 24,740 Orders were subject listed online pertaining to General Order by Commander in Chief (1821-1854).

 

D.     Conservation and Preservation of Public Records: 21 Preservation Assistants and two Conservation Attendants continued the work. They have repaired and laminated 18,137sheets, stitched and bound 143 volumes of varying sizes. Special Chemical treatment was provided to 3109 sheets.

 

E.      Repair and Binding of Rare and Important Books and Publications: 20 Preservation Assistants and two Helpers continued the work. They have repaired and laminated 20767 sheets and stitched and bound 72 volumes.

 

F.       Security Microfilming, Positive Making and Digitization of Public Records:  

 

                                                  i.      Under the project of preparation of negative and positive microfilms of approx. 63 lakh pages available in the National Archives of India, New Delhi, three companies engaged in the task have prepared negative microfilms of 70 Rolls (46,900 Exposures) pertaining to External Affairs Department (Branch-Secret War)   and Near East Branch of External Affairs Department; 63 Rolls (40,320 Exposures) pertaining to Department of Education  and Ministry of Education, Education Branch- A-2 & A2 and 120 Rolls (79,430 exposures) for Series PWD, Foreign Dept., Political proceeding Branch and Home Dept. Public Proceeding.

 

                                                ii.      Under the project of preparation of positive microfilms of approx. 13,000 negative microfilms available in National Archives of India, New Delhi and Regional Office, Bhopal, the two companies engaged in the task have prepared positive microfilms of 400 rolls of negative microfilms available in NAI, New Delhi and positive microfilms of 480 rolls of negative microfilms available in R.O. Bhopal.  

 

                                              iii.      Under the project of preparation of Digital images of 5 lakh pages and converting the same into analogue images in microfilm using Archive Writer, the company engaged for this purpose has completed the process of scanning. 13 Rolls (Exposure 8,833) for Series- Revenue, Agriculture & Commerce, Branch- Emigration.

 

2. De-classification and Downgrading of approximately five lakh records lying with the Ministries and Departments: The following Ministries/Departments and Organisations were contacted/coordinated for de-classification and downgrading of public records: Ministry of Environment & Forests, Eastern Regional office, Bhubaneswar, Central Government Health Scheme, Mumbai, Nuclear Fuel Complex, Department of Atomic Energy, Hyderabad.

 

3. Scheme of Financial Grants:

 

        i.             Letter of Authorization along with requisite papers of the scheme of financial assistance to all the individuals and voluntary organizations was sent to DAVP for publication of advertisement. Hindi version of the revised scheme has been completed.

      ii.             Advertisement for inviting applications for financial assistance under the scheme was published by DAVP in National/ Local Newspaper and the same has been uploaded in the NAI website. Copies of the scheme (both in Hindi & English) have widely been circulated to all the concerned Secretaries, Education and Cultural Departments of State Governments.

 

4. Accession/ Acquisition(R-IV)

Public Records:  1059 files of M/o Home Affairs, Freedom Fighters Division  and Ministry of Road Transport and Highways were accessioned.

Books: 80 books were accessioned in the Library of the Department.

 

5. Appraisal/Retention Schedule of Records:

i.           On the spot-study for vetting of Records Retention Schedule of the Department of Higher Education (Ministry of Human Resource Development) has been completed and the report is in its various stages of finalization.

ii.         On the spot study for vetting the Record Retention Schedule of substantive functions of the following Ministries are under progress.

a) Ministry of External Affairs.

b) Ministry of Panchayati Raj.

c) Ministry of Water Resources.

 

6. Research Facilities:

63 Indian and 17 foreign scholars were newly enrolled in the Research Room of the Department.  Altogether, 474 visits were made by the scholars and 5036 requisitions for records were processed.

 

7. Search Cases:

21 requests for specific information from record holdings and the Archival Library of the Department were attended to.

 

8. Security Microfilming:

 

     45 Rolls of Security Microfilming were undertaken from the records of Finance Department Account(Index) , Home Department(1946 -49), Ministry of States( Political Department), Military Department ( Letter from Court for the period 1858 – 1865), Military Department Proceeding( ABC), period -23 December 1854 to 13 January 1854, Military Department ( letter to Court) Period-1866 to 1869, 100 sheets of Security Microfiche were prepared from the Rare and Precious books of NAI Library)   48 maps have been scanned on A-0 Size Scanner and also scanned Oriental Manuscripts  in 150 images.

 

9. Publication: Informative brochure on Gilgit Manuscript and Public Records were published.

 

10. In House Conservation:

       I.            Conservation: 10284 sheets were repaired, 18 volumes, 76 books and 14 miscellaneous items were stitched and bound.

 

    II.            Testing of Preservative Materials:

·         Two samples of binding cloth were examined  for the suitability of archival repair. However, both the samples were found not to be suitable for archival repair.

·         Restoration work of one album received from the Repository-I is in progress. Besides, two album containing colour drawing and photographs are also in progress for restoration.

 

11. Visits/ Deputation/ Committees/CEP:

 

       I.            Dr. Meena Gautam, Deputy Director of Archives was deputed to attend the Local Museums Expert Committee meeting held on 5-8-2011 at CSL Conference Hall, Shastri Bhavan, New Delhi.

    II.            Sh. Rajesh Verma, Assistant Director of Archives was deputed to attend a workshop on “Disposal of Appeal under RTI” held on 19-8-2011 at Institute of Secretariat Training and Management (ISTM), New Delhi.

 III.            Sh. Ram Swaroop, Assistant Director of Archives was deputed to attend the 15th Meeting of Management and System Division Council held on 05.08.2011 at the Bureau of Indian Standard, New Delhi.

 

 

 

12. Public Relations:

I.                   Dr. Ritu, Archivist and Dr. Sutapa Chakravorty, Scientific Officer were deputed to attend training programme on MS power point presentation held on 18-19 August, 2011 at ISTM, New Delhi

II.                   Ms. Rangasamy, a scholar from National University of Malaysia visited NAI for accessing and selecting material of their interest from NAI from 22-26 August, 2011.

III.             Necessary facilities were provided to Ms. Tora Agarwal, Correspondent, The Indian Express in accessing records and photographs from the Department for their feature on National Archives of India. 

 

13. School of Archival Studies (SAS)

 

 I.                  One Year Diploma Course in Archives and Records Management (2010-11 Session): Teaching of Paper – V Business and Private Archives has been started and is in progress.

 

II.                  73rd Short Term Certificate Course in Records Management (1 – 30 September 2011): Applications from the candidates are being received.

 

III.                  64th Short Term Certificate Course in Care and Conservation of Books, Mss. And Archives (4 July 2011 to 26 August 2011): After the classes being conducted for the short term course, examination has been conducted and now the said course is completed.

 

IV.                  74th Short Term Certificate Course in Servicing and Repair of Records (5 September 2011 - 14 October 2011): Applications from the candidates are being received.

 

V.                  Internship of the Trainees of the One Year Diploma Course in Archives and Records Management: The six months internship programme for non-sponsored trainees of One Year Diploma Course started in April 2011, continued in August month 2011.

 

 

 

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