About the Archives

The Archives at NCBS (https://archives.ncbs.res.in/) is a public centre for the history of science in contemporary India. Over 350,000 processed objects across 50+ collections are in various forms, ranging from paper-based manuscripts to negatives to photographs, books, fine art, audio recordings, scientific equipment, letters, and field and lab notes. The 2000-square-feet state-of-the-art physical centre at NCBS includes space for research, processing, exhibitions, recording, and a leading-edge storage facility with monitors for temperature, light, humidity, air quality, water, fire, pests, and noise. The holdings include the papers of the ornithologist, Ravi Sankaran, and the molecular biologist and co-founder of NCBS, Obaid Siddiqi. They include papers of TSG Sastry, a physicist who worked on the Thumba rocket programme, Leslie Coleman, an early 20th century agricultural scientist in Mysore state, and the renowned agricultural scientist, MS Swaminathan. The Archives has one underlying philosophy—of enabling diverse stories—and operates on four broad verticals. One is to strengthen research collections and access in the history of science in contemporary India. The second is to push the frontiers of research in archival sciences in India, forging intersections with scholarship in law, ethics, information theory and the semantic web, for instance. The third is to build capacity and public awareness through education, training and programming, from high school to professional practice. And the fourth: to reimagine the archives as part of the commons through vibrant public engagement. The Obaid Siddiqi Chair in the History and Culture of Science is generously supported by TNQ Technologies. And much of the work of the Archives at NCBS is supported by TNQ Technologies and Arcadia. The reading rooms are open to the public and researchers without prior appointment. However, you may need an appointment to review the archival holdings. For queries, please visit https://archives.ncbs.res.in/contact

Download the overview brochure of the Archives at NCBS

Download 'The Silverfish', Issue 1, August 2024, a magazine produced by the Archives at NCBS!

Resources

Resource forms and access policies in the Archives

Access and Use

Researcher Application

Deed of Gift

Agreement Form: Oral Histories

Records Transfer Form

Purchase Rights Form

Loan Agreement Form

Material Use Form

De-accessioning Form

Archival Data Privacy Form

Team

Various technical teams from across NCBS – civil, architecture, electrical, IT, instrumentation, hospitality – helped conceptualize and build the physical structure of the Archives at NCBS. The archiving team (see list below) has been a crew of about 100 students and professionals working in short stints between 2016 and 2024: archivists and historians, journalists and writers, scientists and administrators and librarians, students of sociology, engineering, history, photography, the sciences, marketing, education, and architecture and design. The Archives is governed by a guiding Archives Policy, an internal Archives Review Committee and an external advisory board. The Archives has had generous assistance from the archivists and conservators at various centres in Bangalore, across India and around the world.

2024-2025 team: Abishai J, Anjali JR, Carol D'Souza, Carol Daniel, Deepika S, Dhatri S, Hari Sridhar, Kinjal Shah, Kirti Nair, Mohammed Sinan, Ojas Kadu, Parvathy V, Prashant Kumar, Preeti Shree Venkatram, Ravi K Boyapati, Raza Kazmi, Samyamee Sreevathsa, Sindhu Nagaraj, Sravya Darbhamulla, Twisha Sangwan, Venkat Srinivasan

Archives Review Committee, 2024-26 (Internal): 

Anjana Badrinarayanan

Archishman Raju

LS Shashidhara

Shashi Thutupalli

Uma Ramakrishnan

Venkat Srinivasan

Vidhyalakshmi M

Archives Review Committee, 2024-26 (External): 

Anne-Flore Laloe, European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT)

Aparajith Ramnath, Ahmedabad University

Shubha Chaudhuri, The Archives and Research Center for Ethnomusicology (ARCE), American Institute of Indian Studies

Mariella Soprano, Caltech Archives (Chair of Committee)

Rochelle Pinto, Azim Premji University

Picture credit: Ravi Kumar Boyapati