New Delhi, Aug. 10 -- The Centre is planning to digitally archive Indian tribes' heritage to develop the market for their products and cultural expressions, Vivek Bharadwaj, the secretary of the ministry of panchayati raj, told Mint in an interview.

The government has executed a pilot in Jharkhand and will begin documentation in Chhattisgarh in August. The project will be expanded to other states covered under the Fifth Schedule of the Constitution, such as Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha, Rajasthan and Telangana-home to approximately 350 recognized scheduled tribes (STs).

The idea is to help tribals derive economic value through Geographical Indication (GI) tagging and domestic and global ...