The AP State Archives and Research Institute has successfully completed the digitisation of over 3.7 lakh documents pertaining to the former Hyderabad State Secretariat and Andhra Pradesh Government Orders under a pilot project.
Mr.Ajay Mishra, Principal Secretary, Higher Education Department, said after releasing a CD on digitisation of old archival records at AP State Archives here on Tuesday said it was one of the largest projects of its kind on digitisation in the archival history of the State. It would give a paradigm shift to the mechanism of research on history. The records of the former State of Hyderabad were digitised from 1846 onwards and that of AP GOs from 1920. More funds would be provided as and when necessary as there were more archival records to be digitised. The digitised records should be accessible to one and all in the wake of the RTI Act, he said.
Prof. Suleman Siddiqui, former Vice-Chancellor of Osmania University, said that a grant of Rs.2 crore to the archives was the biggest grant ever for digitisation. Whatever records of the Asaf Jahi period from 1846 AD and AP GOs from 1920 onwards that had been digitised so far was just a tip of the iceberg.
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Dr. Zareen Parveen, Director, State Archives, also spoke.