New Delhi, March 11 (IANS): Minister of State for Culture and Tourism Mahesh Sharma on Wednesday highlighted the importance of archives for a nation and said these age-old records help in preserving traces of history for future generations.

"History is very important for a country because it has the potential to contribute to nation building. It is due to this reason that we must make the valuable age-old records, available with us, transparent and accessible to the people," said Sharma.

"These archives and records contain a wealth of knowledge and through them we can take the cultural heritage of the country to the people," he added.

Sharma was speaking at the inauguration of the year-long celebrations of the 125th anniversary of National Archives of India (NAI) here.

He also highlighted the importance of digitisation for the preservation of these records.

"This is the era of e-governance and the digitisation of records will help to preserve these archives for the future generation. This also helps to access these records quickly," he said.

NAI was established on March 11, 1891 in Calcutta as the Imperial Records Department.