National Book Trust, India in collaboration with the Embassy of France, Bureau International de l’ Edition Française BIEF (International Office for the Promotion of French Books) organized a seminar on France-India: New Editorial Trends in Publishing, an Indo-French Panorama: Non Fiction, Fiction, Children’s Literature Publications. The seminar was inaugurated by Mr Max Claudet, Cultural Counsellor of the French Embassy, Mr Sikandar, Director, NBT and Mr Jean-Guy Boin, Director, BIEF. In the seminar the experts from India and France discussed about the new trends in publishing in India and France, shared their experiences to get to know each other better and explored possibilities for collaborations and foreign rights.
A delegation headed by Mr Ahmed Rakkad Al Amri, Director, Sharjah International Book Fair met the Director of NBT. In the meeting, Mr Ahmed said that SIBF had benefitted from participation in the New Delhi World Book Fair and was happy to share the fact that the participation of Indian publishers in SIBF is increasing every year. Mr Ahmed proposed to have a ten-day Sharjah Cultural Days in Delhi showcasing the cultural products from Sharjah. While Mr Sikandar proposed to have an Indian pavilion in the next SIBF to be held from 7th to 17 November 2012. A delegation of Embassy of the Republic of Belarus, headed by Ms Galina Bubnovskaya, Charge d’Affaires, also met Mr Sikandar and discussed about the modalities of participation in book fairs organized by both the countries in future.
A panel discussion on the topic Lights, Camera, Rights! was organized at the theme pavilion in which Mr Amarnath Verma, CMD, Star Publishers, Ms V K Karthika, Publisher, Harper Collins, Mr Mitadru Basu, Commissioning Editor, Oxford University Press and Ms Dipa Chaudhary, Chief Editor, Om Books International participated.
Welcoming the guests present on the occasion, Mr Sikandar, Director, NBT said that Shri Sibal, Minister of Human resource Development has announced that the World Book Fair would be a regular affair which is a welcome step. He also said that NBT will be opening book promotion centers where book-related activities like discussions, seminars etc will be organized to help promote reading habit.
All the panelists in the discussion were of the view that our books have great potentiality. Like films our books are also ambassadors of India and introduce our country to the world. Indian books are popular in the world. Selling their Rights in the International market may be difficult but not impossible.
Mr Muzaffar Ali, renowned film-maker of the movie Umrao Jaan released the book Representation of Awadh Culture in Indian Cinema, authored by Shri Muntazir Qaimi. Prof. Imtiaz Ahmad, Jawaharlal Nehru University was also present on the occasion. At children’s pavilion more than 1200 books for children in several Indian and foreign languages have been displayed. A catalogue of books exhibited at the pavilion is also being distributed among the visitors. A workshop for children was also organized by the noted illustrator Shri Atanu Rai at the pavilion. A delegation including Mr Juhavirta and Ms Salla Savolainen from Finland also visited the pavilion.
Founder and CEO of the e-portal www.bookganga.com, Mr Mandar Joglekar in a discussion titled E-books: Upcoming Trends spoke about the aspects for setting-up free e-bookstores for readers across the world.
The cultural programmes being organized at Lal Chowk are enthralling the visitors at the fair. The evening was dedicated to the traditional folk-dances and folk singing of Rajasthan.
