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The Ministry of Culture told the Lok Sabha that the upgraded Indian Culture Portal (ICP) Version 2.0 was launched in March 2026 with a modern, scalable architecture and an AI-powered chat bot named Bharti.
Content is available in 22 Indian languages through integration with the BHASHINI platform, and the portal has been built as a Progressive Web Application on a decoupled React and Drupal 10 architecture.
India's cultural diplomacy runs through the Global Engagement Scheme, an umbrella scheme with four components — the International Cultural Exchange Programme, Project Mausam, Brihattar Bharat, and the Scheme for Safeguarding the Intangible Cultural Heritage and Diverse Cultural Traditions of India.
The Ministry has valid Cultural Exchange Programmes with 98 countries and participates in BRICS, G20, SCO and BIMSTEC cultural forums.
E-auctions of mementos and gifts presented to the Prime Minister have raised amounts ranging from Rs 1.89 crore in the 7th edition (2025) to Rs 15.8 crore in the 3rd edition (2023); no such auction was organised by the National Gallery of Modern Art before 2019.
Provide a single digital platform for access to India's cultural resources across institutions
Key: Launched March 2026; content in 22 Indian languages via BHASHINI, AI chat bot 'Bharti', advanced search and filtering, Progressive Web Application access across devices, decoupled React and Drupal 10 architecture, and metadata/API-based integration of cultural institutions
Strengthen India's international cultural engagement and cultural diplomacy
Key: Umbrella scheme of the Ministry of Culture supporting cultural exchanges, heritage conservation, documentation, capacity building and engagement with international cultural organisations, with four components
Take Indian culture abroad and run bilateral cultural cooperation
Key: Component of GES; covers Festivals of India, cultural exchanges, deputation of artists and cultural troupes, and implementation of Cultural Exchange Programmes and MoUs — currently valid CEPs with 98 countries
Document the cultural, commercial and religious interactions across the Indian Ocean 'world'
Key: A Ministry of Culture project launched by India at the 38th World Heritage Session at Doha, Qatar on 20 June 2014, implemented by IGNCA as nodal coordinating agency with the Archaeological Survey of India and the National Museum as associate bodies; it aims at a transnational mixed route nomination on the World Heritage List
Engage with the cultural footprint of India beyond its borders
Key: One of the four components of the Global Engagement Scheme
Protect and document India's intangible cultural heritage
Key: The fourth GES component, connecting the Ministry's domestic documentation work to the UNESCO 2003 Convention framework
Projects India's culture abroad through Indian Cultural Centres, artistic exchanges, flagship international cultural festivals in India, visual arts exhibitions, art residencies and commemoration of occasions such as the International Day of Yoga
Research, academic pursuit and dissemination in the arts; nodal coordinating agency for Project Mausam
Premier institution for modern and contemporary Indian art; conducts the e-auction of mementos and gifts presented to the Prime Minister — a practice that did not exist before 2019
The AI-powered language translation platform whose integration gives the Indian Culture Portal content in 22 Indian languages
The onboarded institutions include the National Archives of India, National Museum, Indian Museum (Kolkata), Victoria Memorial Hall, The Asiatic Society, National Library of India, Salar Jung Museum (Hyderabad), Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya (Mumbai), Khuda Bakhsh Oriental Public Library (Patna), Rampur Raza Library, Allahabad Museum, Indira Gandhi Rashtriya Manav Sangrahalaya (Bhopal), the Anthropological Survey of India and the zonal cultural centres
Cultural Exchange Programmes with 98 countries, Festivals of India and ICCR's cultural centres are the concrete instruments behind the abstract term 'soft power' that Mains answers on India's foreign policy invariably use
Cultural diplomacy is split — the Ministry of Culture runs the Global Engagement Scheme while ICCR sits under the Ministry of External Affairs. This division is precisely the sort of detail a Prelims question tests
Project Mausam links the culture syllabus to the maritime history of monsoon-driven trade across the Indian Ocean, and to India's contemporary maritime outreach in the region
The portal's use of BHASHINI for 22-language access is an example of one government digital public good being consumed by another — the same pattern as DigiLocker, UPI and the Academic Bank of Credits
GS Paper 1 > Indian Culture; GS Paper 2 > India and its Neighbourhood, Bilateral Groupings
General Awareness > Art, Culture and Government Initiatives
Cultural institutions, their parent ministries and India's cultural diplomacy schemes recur in Prelims and in GS1/GS2 Mains
The Ministry of Culture's umbrella scheme for international cultural engagement, with four components — ICEP, Project Mausam, Brihattar Bharat and the Scheme for Safeguarding Intangible Cultural Heritage
Launched by India at the 38th World Heritage Session in Doha on 20 June 2014 to document cultural, commercial and religious interactions across the Indian Ocean; IGNCA is the nodal agency with ASI and the National Museum as associates
The bilateral instrument through which India institutionalises cooperation in culture, museums, heritage and performing arts; currently valid with 98 countries
The AI language translation platform under the National Language Translation Mission, launched in July 2022 by MeitY, supporting 22 Indian languages