Setting up of an Indian Institute of Heritage and Conservation with the status of a deemed university and a tribal museum in Ranchi, Jharkhand, five archaeological sites in Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Assam, Gujarat and Tamil Nadu to be developed with on-site museums are the key proposal under the Union Culture Ministry in the Budget 2020-21.
The Ministry has been allocated Rs 3,150 crore for the said fiscal. “Acquisition of knowledge in disciplines such as museology and archeology are essential for collecting and analysing scientific evidence of such findings and for dissemination through high quality museums,” said Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.
“Five archaeological sites in Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Assam, Gujarat and Tamil Nadu would be developed with on-site museums,” the Finance Minister said.
Those, to be developed as iconic sites, will be in Rakhigarhi (Haryana), Hastinapur (Uttar Pradesh), Shivsagar (Assam), Dholavira (Gujarat) and Adichanallur (Tamil Nadu).
The Minister also proposed the re-curation of the oldest museum in India as announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in January 2020. A Numismatics and Trade Museum will also be located in the historic Old Mint Building in Kolkata.
Highlighting improved tourism revenues due to better rank, the Finance Minister said, “India had moved up from rank 65 in 2014 to 34 in 2019 in the Travel and Tourism Competitive Index (World Economic Forum).”
Due to this, she said, “Foreign exchange earnings grew 7.4 per cent to Rs 1.88 lakh crores for the period January 2019 from Rs 1.75 lakh crores.” Rs 2,500 crore has been allocated for the Union Ministry of Tourism for 2021-2022. While the allocation for the Tourism Ministry was Rs 2,150 crore in the 2018-2019 Budget, it rose to Rs 2,189.22 crore in 2019-2020.
The allocation for the Culture Ministry, which was Rs 2,843.32 crore in 2018-2019, increased to Rs 3,042.35 crore for 2019-2020.