The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Government grants funds for Bangalore Book Festival

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Oct 06, 2007
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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

Government grants funds for Bangalore Book Festival

Special Correspondent

Bangalore: The State Government, which has established many official organisations for encouraging Kannada book culture, has granted Rs. 1 lakh to the Bangalore Book Festival organised by the Bangalore Book Sellers and Publishers’ Association to further its effort to promote Kannada publications and publishers on the occasion of Suvarna Karnataka year.

Besides some private publication organisations, the State Government has joined hands with the organisers of the book festival through its prime agency — Kannada Book Authority (KBA), which is dedicated to promote book publications and encourage writing talent with a focus on social justice, for the cause of Kannada. The 10-day book fair will be held from October 12 to 21 at Palace Grounds.

Chairman of the KBA S. G. Siddaramaiah told presspersons here on Friday that hitherto the KBA had only been putting up its stall in private book fairs. It had realised the need to give a fillip and exposure to Kannada publications and publishers and had decided to allocate Rs. 1 lakh for the fair with some specific conditions.

The organisers had agreed to accommodate over 50 stalls exclusively for Kannada publishers on a rental of Rs. 7, 000 each. They would also provide some free sale counters for those publishers and writer-publishers.

Over 40 Kannada publishers had come forward to set up their stalls and many more were expected to approach the KBA. The KBA would set up an exclusive exhibition of the copies of the first edition of the prestigious awards, including Jnanpith, Kendra Sahitya Akademi, Pamapa and Attimabbe winner works and the photographs of the respective authors. Literary and cultural programmes on each day of the fair would mark the event.

Devaru Bhat, Raghuram, Santanam and others of the book festival organising committee said that over 300 publishers across the country were expected to participate in the event.

The stall rentals for the publishers of English, and non-Kannada languages and commercial publications would be Rs. 19, 000, Rs. 12, 000 and Rs. 29,000 respectively.

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