India 2018

72 India 2018
declared an institution of national importance by the Government of India Act
of 1935.
It is the premier period museum in India on Indo-British history in the
eighteenth, nineteenth and twentieth centuries. It also functions as the premier
art gallery, museum, research library, and cultural space in Kolkata. It has been
widely hailed as the finest specimen of Indo-British architecture in India, and
called the 'Taj of the Raj.' In 2017, the VMH has been recognized by TripAdvisor
- the world's largest travel and tourism-related website - as the no. 1 museum
in India and the no. 9 museum in Asia. It's rapidly rising global stature as a top
tourist destination in India is also indicated by the award of Lonely Planet 'Top
Choice' and 'Fodor's Choice' ratings. The VMH is currently by far the mostvisited
museum in India and one of the top museums in the world in terms of
footfall, with more than 21 lakh people visiting its galleries and 14 lakh people
touring the gardens separately in 2017-18. In 2015 it was also named as the
'Cleanest Monument in India,' for which it bagged the India Today Safaigiri
Award.
As a museum, the VMH collection has 28,394 artefacts displayed in nine
galleries that encapsulate the history of the country extending over three
centuries beginning from 1650 A.D. The collection includes paintings in oil and
watercolour, sketches and drawings, aquatints, lithographs, photographs, rare
books and manuscripts, stamps and postal stationery, coins and medals, arms
and armour, sculptures, costumes, personal relics and other miscellaneous
archival documents.
National Museum Institute of History of Art, Conservation and Museology
It is an autonomous organization, fully funded by the Ministry of Culture,
established and declared as a Deemed University in 1989. This is the only
Museum University in India and is presently functioning at the first floor of
National Museum, New Delhi. The Director General, National Museum is the
ex-officio Vice-Chancellor of this University. Main objectives are (a) to provide
education and training in the specialized areas of art, history, conservation and
museology leading to the award of M.A. and Ph.D. Degrees in these three
disciplines, (b) a few short-term courses- Indian art and culture, art appreciation
and (Hindi Medium) are also conducted to popularize the Indian culture, (c) to
organize seminars/ workshops, conferences and special lectures on museum
education, art and culture.
National Research Laboratory for Conservation of Cultural Property
National Research Laboratory for Conservation of Cultural Property (NRLC)
was established in 1976, as a subordinate office of the Department of Culture
and is recognized by the Department of Science and Technology as a scientific
institution of the Government of India. It provides conservation services and
technical advise in matters concerning conservation to museums, archives,
archaeology departments and other related cultural institutions, imparts training
in different aspects of conservation, carries out research in methods and manner