New Delhi | Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said that India's music, dance, cinema and cuisine continue to connect the country with societies across the world, asserting that its cultural heritage is receiving growing recognition internationally.

In a written message to the participants at the 'Brihattar Bharat: International Conference on Bharat's Cultural Connections Across the Globe' being held at the Vigyan Bhawan from October 14-16, Modi also said that besides preserving monuments, the government is also preserving India's manuscript heritage through the Gyan Bharatam initiative.

Union Culture Secretary Vivek Aggarwal read out the prime minister's message at the inaugural session of the conference.

Efforts to bring back antiquities from foreign countries have gained a "renewed momentum", while India's cultural heritage is receiving growing recognition at the international level, Modi said.

The Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (IGNCA), under the Ministry of Culture, is hosting the conference themed on India's cultural legacy and its wider civilisational heritage beyond borders.

Union Culture Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat was also present at the inaugural session.

The conference brings together delegates, ambassadors and scholars from different countries to deliberate on India's historical and contemporary cultural connections with the wider world.

It also marks the centenary of the Greater India Society, also known as the Brihattar Bharat Parishad, established in then-Calcutta on October 14, 1926, by a generation of Indian scholars, with Rabindranath Tagore as its spiritual guide, the IGNCA said.