Current Activities of National Archives of India

for the Month of January 2010

Accession/ Acquisition

Records: 3,666 files (1973) of Ministry of Home Affairs were transferred to the Department for permanent retention.  980 files were arranged and accessioned.  

Records Management

                                                        I.            A total of 3,049 files were appraised.  These files include, 788 files of the office of Comptroller and Auditor General (1921-22), 1000 files of the Ministry of External Affairs (1952-77) and 1261 files of Prime Minister’s Office (1965-77).  Of these, 108 files were marked for destruction.

                                                     II.            Annual Inspection of Departmental Records Room of the Department of Agriculture and Cooperation   was conducted and necessary guidance on Records Mangement was rendered.

                                                   III.            The information of two sub-committees of the Archival Advisory Board, i.e. a)  assessing the condition of State/ Union Territory Archives in the country and suggesting strategies for their up gradation and modernization and b)   Up gradation and affiliations of the School of Archival Studies with National Museum Institute was notified on 4 and 6 January 2010 respectively.

                                                  IV.            The minutes of the 11^th meeting of Archival Advisory Board were issued to all the members on 5 January 2010.

Advisory

            The Director General of Archives held meeting with the Joint Secretaries, of the Department of Heavy Industry and Department of Agriculture and Cooperation, on the 5^th and 7^th January 2010 respectively and discussed issues relating to Records Management. Later, Director General of Archives inspected the Departmental Record Rooms alongwith the Joint Secretaries of the concerned Departments.

Orientation Course in Records Management

            The 89^th Orientation Course in Records Management for Departmental Records Officers (DROs) was conducted at the Records Office, National Archives of India, Bhopal (11-15 January 2010). 11 Officers from various Ministries/ Departments/ Public Sector Undertakings attended the course.

   Recruitment of 20 Archival Assistants

            20 Archival Assistants were recruited on contract basis.  They joined duty on 10 January 2010 and are undergoing Orientation Training for ten days (19-29 January 2010) after which they will be deputed to Ministries/ Departments for the work related to Records Management viz. appraisal and transfer of Public Records to National Archives of India.

Research Facilities

            57 Indian and 13 foreign scholars (from Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Turkey, U.K. and USA) were enrolled in the Research Room of the Department.  Altogether, 430 visits were made by the scholars and 2,685 requisitions from records were processed.

Project on Preparation of the Reference Media of Private Papers

            Under the project 4,983 items of Sardar Vallabhai Patel Papers (Microfilm) and 6,107 items of Phool Chand Jain Papers were subject listed manually. Besides, 5,343 entries of subject listed items of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Papers (Microfilm) were made on computer.

Search Cases

            10 requests for specific information from record holdings of the Department were attended to.

Computerization

            Under the programme for the computerization of Reference Media of Records, 20,071 entries of records pertaining to Military Department, Military Estates (1837) and Military Upcountry (1837-50) supplied by M/s Micrographics India after carrying out the corrections of the validated data were randomly checked.

Microfilming

            Security microfilming of 61 rolls of the following records series was completed: Finance Department Accounts (Index) (1936-37); Home Department (1937-38); Ministry of States (Political Department)  (1950);   Military   Department Proceedings (A/B/C) (1852), and Military Department (Marine) (1907-10) and Sanskrit Manuscripts (Roll. No. 5 to 14).  Besides security microfiche comprising 50 sheets of rare publications available in the Library of the Department were also prepared.

Conservation

8,135 sheets were repaired, 15 Volumes, and 180 miscellaneous items were stitched/ bound.

RTI

            Four RTI cases received from general public and government authorities were processed and one query of miscellaneous nature regarding RTI was attended to.  Besides, one appeal was disposed of.

Public Relations

            The script of the documentary film on National Archives of India received from the Film Division, Mumbai was received for examination at our end.

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