Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman proposed the setting up of an Indian Institute of Heritage and Conservation with the status of a deemed university under the ministry of culture while presenting the Budget for 2020-21 on Saturday.

Sitharaman said Rs 3,150 crore has been allocated for the ministry of vulture and Rs 2,500 crore for the ministry of tourism. “Acquisition of knowledge in disciplines such as museology and archeology are essential for collecting and analysing scientific evidence of such findings and for dissemination through high quality museums,” she said.

She also proposed the setting up of a tribal museum in Ranchi, Jharkhand. “Five archaeological sites in Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Assam, Gujarat and Tamil Nadu would be developed with on-site museums,” the finance minister said. Those, to be developed as iconic sites, will be in Rakhigarhi (Haryana), Hastinapur (Uttar Pradesh), Shivsagar (Assam), Dholavira (Gujarat) and Adichanallur (Tamil Nadu).

Highlighting improved tourism revenues due to better rank, the finance minister said, “India had moved up from rank 65 in 2014 to 34 in 2019 in the travel and tourism competitive index (World Economic Forum).” Due to this, she said, “Foreign exchange earnings grew 7.4 per cent to Rs 1.88 lakh crores for the period January 2019 from Rs 1.75 lakh crores.” The FM also proposed the re-curation of the oldest museum in India as announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in January 2020. A Numismatics and Trade Museum will also be located in the historic Old Mint Building in Kolkata.

The FM also announced renovation and re-curation of four more museums across India.

While the allocation for the tourism ministry was Rs 2,150 crore in the 2018-2019 Budget, it rose to Rs 2,189.22 crore in 2019-2020. The allocation for the culture ministry, which was Rs 2,843.32 crore in 2018-2019, increased to Rs 3,042.35 crore for 2019-2020.