19-Jul-2022: National Culture Fund has completed 52 projects with various donors since its inception
Government of India has set up National Culture Fund (NCF) as a Trust on 28th November, 1996 under the Charitable Endowment Act, 1890. NCF is managed by a (Governing) Council and an Executive Committee. The Council is chaired by the Union Minister of Culture and has a strength of 21 including 15 non-official members representing various fields including corporate sector, private foundations and not-for-profit voluntary organizations. The Executive Committee is chaired by Secretary (Culture) and has a strength of 9 including 4 non-official members from the Council.
A donor/sponsor while making contributions to the NCF may indicate a project along with any specific location/aspect and also an agency for execution of the project. Besides, the interests accrued from the Primary and Secondary Corpus is also utilized for activities associated with the field of culture.
The aim of National Culture Fund (NCF) is to establish and nurture partnerships in the field of Culture and Heritage with private and public sectors, government, non-government agencies, private institutions and foundations and mobilize resources for the restoration, conservation, protection and development of India’s rich, natural, tangible and intangible heritage.
The major objectives of NCF is to administer and apply the Fund for conservation, maintenance, promotion, protection, preservation and up gradation of monuments protected or otherwise; for the training and development of a cadre of specialists and cultural administrators, for innovations and experiments in arts and for documentation of cultural expressions and forms that have lost their relevance in contemporary scenario and are either fading out or facing extinction.
Since inception, NCF has completed 52 projects with various donors.
8-Jan-2019: About 68.86 Crores of funds collected in NCF
The aim of National Culture Fund (NCF) is to establish and nurture partnerships in the field of Culture and Heritage between private and public sectors, government, non-government agencies, private institutions and foundations and mobilize resources for the restoration, conservation, protection and development of India’s rich, natural, tangible and intangible heritage.
The following are some of the major objectives of NCF:
- to administer and apply the Fund for conservation, maintenance, promotion, protection, preservation and up gradation of monuments protected or otherwise;
- for the training and development of a cadre of specialists and cultural administrators
- for innovations and experiments in arts
- for documentation of cultural expressions and forms that have lost their relevance in contemporary scenario and are either fading out or facing extinction.
The Government had granted Rs.19.50 crore as one time corpus fund to National Culture Fund out of the planned budget. Apart from this, there is no fund allocated by the Government to National Culture Fund. Besides this, NCF receives contributions and voluntary donations as endowments from many other sources.
NCF helped in protecting, promoting and preserving India’s culture by mobilizing resources by approaching various PSUs, Banks, Corporate/Companies for seeking their participation under the corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) to preserve/protect India’s cultural heritage.
Under NCF, it is possible for a donor to identify project along with any specific location aspects for funding and also an agency for execution of the project. The NCF received proposals from reputed agencies like the Archaeological Survey of India (the nodal agency for conservation, preservation and up gradation of monuments of national importance) for tangible projects and other agencies promoting intangible culture, for being taken forward for partnership with Public Sector Undertakings and Private Sector Enterprises. The NCF had also undertaken some intangible projects on publications, documentaries, capacity building and training programs for artists and photo exhibitions.