UK promises £6.5 million to develop cultural collaboration

With a cultural relation spreading over almost 400 years, India and Britain are looking to set up a 6.5 million pound fund to promote creative collaboration between the museums of the two countries. Announcing this, UK Cabinet Minister for culture, media and sports Sajid Javid said, " I expect it to reach and benefit the artists who are overlooked but can contribute to the cultural heritage of the to countries."

The minister who is on a trip to India was speaking at a round table discussion between officials from leading museum from the the two countries. The officials which included the deputy directors of the Indian Museum and National Museum, Scotland discussed on the findings of a research " Re-Imagine Museums and Galleries: UK-India Opportunities and Partnerships." Presenting the findings of the research, Sujata Sen, director, British Council, East India said that there were no comprehensieve data available on the Indian museums and they lacked a HR struture.

There are over 800 museums in India with 76 of them privately-run.

B Venugopal, director, Indian Museum said that the Indian museums contained some very rare artificats but the initiatives were failing due to lack of strategies in international collaboration.

Jayanta Sengupta, curator of Victoria Memorial said that more central assistance was required to develop the culture of museums in India as the concept of museum shop and cafe whic are two important sources of revenue generation was still not popular in the country. According to a report of the Ministry of Culture, 45.6 percent of the national museums generate their own income.

The participants expected that with the Company Act 2013 including compulsory CSR funding to heritage and culture, the scenario will improve significantly.

The delegation from UK promised promised to provide assistance for the development of museums in the country. Sajid Javid said, " UK is a world leader in museum management with almost 1 million visitors last year from around the world."