The Hindu : New Delhi News : Book lovers to stay booked....

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Aug 30, 2007
ePaper

New Delhi

New Delhi

Book lovers to stay booked....

Manisha Jha

The 13th annual Delhi Book Fair opens at Pragati Maidan this Saturday

Well over 233 companies comprising publishers from India and overseas expected to take part
“Last year the fair attracted two lakh visitors and this year we hope to get more”

NEW DELHI: Bibliophiles in the Capital and its neighbourhood can look forward to an exciting week ahead with the 13th annual Delhi Book Fair opening at Pragati Maidan here this Saturday.

Organised by the India Trade Promotion Organisation (ITPO) in association with Federation of Indian Publishers (FIP), the fair that will be on up to September 9 will be inaugurated by Delhi’s Lieutenant-Governor Tejendra Khanna. Sahitya Akademi president Gopi Chand Narang will be the guest of honour.

Aiming at inculcating and encouraging the reading habit, especially among children and youth, the fair simultaneously offers an enormous scope for transacting business with publishers from India and abroad, building new contacts and entering co-publishing arrangements. It will also offer opportunities for translation and copyright arrangements and reprinting of old and rare books as well as major international works.

Well over 233 companies comprising Indian publishers, representatives of foreign publishers in India and overseas participants from China, Iran, Pakistan and the United Arab Emirates are expected to make a mark at the fair this year. The offerings at the fair will include educational books, fiction and non-fiction, literature, children’s books and dictionaries apart from periodicals, magazines, journals, teaching aids and computer software.

ITPO Chairman and Managing Director Sheela Bhide said: “The Delhi Book Fair is getting increasingly popular each year attracting a cross-section of people. Last year the fair attracted two lakh visitors and this year we hope to get more. The number of foreign participants this year has also doubled from seven last year to 13 this year.”

“Indian publishing industry going global combined with increasing population and rising literacy rates is bound to increase the readership even further and the book fair will play a large role in bolstering this readership,” she added.

To make the show more meaningful, a number of book-related events such as seminars, book releases, book quiz programme and painting competition have been planned during the fair.

Added attractions at the fair will be two concurrent fairs titled ‘Stationary Fair 2007’ and ‘Sajavat 2007’. While the “Stationery Fair” will showcase a wide range of stationery items, the “Sajavat Fair” will exhibit a variety of home décor and other allied products.

The fairs will be open to the public from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. and the tickets will be priced at Rs.10 and Rs.5 for adults and children, respectively.

School children, however, would be allowed free entry to the fair as part of school groups.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail