GS 1: Art & Culture

Why in News?

India has partnered with Portugal to set up a National Maritime Heritage Museum at Lothal in Gujarat.

Highlights:

• The Indian Navy will be the stakeholder in the project and the Portuguese Navy will assist as they have experience in it by administering the maritime museum in Lisbon, Portugal.
• India is to follow a similar model of the maritime museum.
• In March 2019, Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone for the project and the Government of India has allocated a grant for building the maritime museum.
• The project will be implemented by the Ministry of Shipping through its Sagarmala programme.
• The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) along with the State government and other stakeholders is also involved in setting up the museum.
• The initial discussion about the partnership was held during the visit of Portuguese Defence Minister João Gomes Cravinho to India in April 2019.
• A Defence Ministry-led delegation will visit Portugal to study the existing museum.

Maritime Museum:

• A maritime museum is a museum that specializes in displaying the objects related to ships and travel on large bodies of water.
• A subcategory of maritime museums are naval museums, which focus on navies and the military use of the sea.