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The Ministry of Culture operates the Museum Grant Scheme (MGS), giving financial assistance for setting up new museums, developing existing ones, digitising collections and creating virtual museums, Culture Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat told Lok Sabha on 27 July 2026.
Museums are classified into three categories for funding: Category I (renowned, government-owned museums in state capitals with at least 1 lakh annual footfall) gets up to Rs 15 crore, while Category II and III new-museum projects are capped at Rs 10 crore and Rs 5 crore respectively.
Separate, smaller ceilings — up to Rs 50 lakh (Category I) and Rs 25 lakh (Category II) — apply for digitisation and virtual-museum components, with proposals vetted by a Ministry Expert Committee.
| Category | Setting Up New Museum | Developing Existing Museum |
|---|---|---|
| Category I (state-capital, ≥1 lakh footfall) | Rs 15 crore | Rs 15 crore |
| Category II (Central/State govt-owned, incl. PSU museums) | Rs 10 crore | Rs 8 crore |
| Category III (societies, autonomous bodies, trusts, etc.) | Rs 5 crore | Rs 4 crore |
A Category III applicant (society, autonomous body, local body, PSU, academic institution or trust) must be registered under this Act (or a similar state law, or as a Public Trust) and have existed for at least 3 years to be eligible for a Museum Grant Scheme grant
India's premier national-level museum, holding antiquities, paintings, and art & craft collections across disciplines
India's oldest museum, founded in 1814 under the Asiatic Society of Bengal — the largest multi-disciplinary museum in the Asia-Pacific region, illustrating the scale MGS-funded institutions aspire to
Key: Predates the Museum Grant Scheme by over a century; a reference point for how India's museum movement began
A Trust set up by the Ministry of Culture on 28 November 1996 under the Charitable Endowments Act, 1890, to mobilise public-private partnership funding for heritage restoration, conservation and development
Key: Complements MGS by channelling donor/CSR funds into heritage projects, distinct from MGS's direct government grant-in-aid route
GS Paper 1 > Art & Culture > Museums; Governance > Central Sector Schemes
Occasional — resurfaces whenever Parliament questions or new museum sanctions are reported
A renowned, government-owned museum in a state capital with at least 1 lakh annual footfall in the preceding two years, eligible for the scheme's highest grant ceiling