NEW DELHI: On the occasion of its 135th Foundation Day, National Archives of India (NAI) reduced the user charges for downloading documents from Abhilekh Patal to facilitate access to records. For supply of digital images, including Digitize On Demand, the charges have been reduced with immediate effect, the Ministry of Culture said in a statement on Tuesday.
For Indian scholars downloading of first 20 pages will be free of cost, and further slots to be charge as follows:
- 0-20 images- free of cost
- 20-50 images ₹2 per image
- 50-100 images ₹3 per image
- 100-above ₹5 per image
For foreign scholars downloading of first 20 pages will be free of cost.
- 0-20 pages – free of cost
- 20-50 pages ₹5 per page
- 50-100 pages ₹10 per page
- 100-above ₹15 per page
If the number of images falls in the next slot, then that slot’s rate will be charged for all the pages. The rates for providing scanned images of oversize and large size maps/ documents up to A-0 size to both, Indian and foreign scholars have been reduced from ₹20 to ₹15 per image (300 dpi). Minimum charges have been removed.Reprography Service Rates (hardcopy printouts) for Indian scholars have been reduced from ₹5 to ₹2 per page, and for foreign scholars from ₹10 to ₹4 per page. Similarly, charges for photocopying of color pages for India scholars have been reduced from ₹20 to ₹8 per page, and for foreign scholars from ₹40 to ₹16 per page.
NAI remains firmly committed towards improving ease of access to India’s historical heritage and will endeavor to completely eliminate paperwork and filling up of forms for this purpose in future, the ministry stated.
NAI has launched an ambitious program for digitizing all its records, which has already resulted in hosting almost 8.81 crore pages on Abhilekh Patal. It is NAI’s endeavor to completely digitize its records over the next two years to facilitate wide outreach and easy any-time, anywhere access to its holdings, the ministry said.
The National Archives of India (NAI) is the custodian of the non-current records of the Government of India, and holding them in trust for the use of the records creators and the users at large. NAI has been constantly endeavoring to enhance and simplify access to its records holdings, it said.
A review of current policy of access to records was recently undertaken keeping in view the global best practices. It was observed that the ongoing digitization of records and archival holdings by the major archival repositories around the globe, has changed the way people access records. The online access portal of the NAI – Abhilekh-PATAL was launched on March 11, 2015 and has ever since become immensely popular amongst the users of archives. As on date it has nearly thirty thousand registered users from over 200 countries and has recorded over 20 lakh hits so far, it added.
