The excitement of book readers as well as authors and publishers was quite palpable at the 43rd World Book Fair at Pragati Maidan, New Delhi from 9 to 17 January 2016. This year China was the Guest of Honour country. The Union human resource development minister, Smriti Irani inaugurated the New Delhi World Book Fair (NDWBF) on 9 January 2016 and appreciated National Book Trust’s (NBT’s) effort in creating a platform for young writers to publish their works. Termed as Asia’s largest event, hosting about 30 countries including China, Egypt, Pakistan, Nepal, and Spain the event was aligned with several cultural programmes, panel discussions, readings, theatre, writing workshops, discussions, conferences, classical and folk dances. The theme this year was, ‘Vivid Bharat – Diverse India,’ showcasing the heterogeneity of writing and publishing phenomena in the country. Another theme or slightly more outward message of the fair was ‘Renaissance of Civilizations – Understanding through Exchanges.’
The World Book Fair is organized by the National Book Trust of India, an autonomous body under the Ministry of Human Resource Development, and the India Trade Promotion Organisation (ITPO). This year in a bid to attract young readers to the NDWBF, NBT spread the tidings among the schools in Delhi-NCR and other adjacent areas. And the result of the effort was quite conspicuous with a huge proportion of the footfall contributed by school children.“We have sent out information about our activities to the majority of schools and colleges. We understand that more needs to be done in this regard and we are working toward it,” said Rita Chowdhury, director, National Book Trust, India who took over charge in July 2015.
Globalocal Talk #3rd Edition
Concurrent to the NDWBF, the German Book Office in New Delhi (which is the South Asia node of the Frankfurt Book Fair), organized interactions and discussions at its stand at the World Book Fair to add to the professional scope to the event. The session provided insights and tips on how to successfully negotiate and execute rights contracts with global publishers. Speakers from France, Germany, China, UK made presentations and led discussions on Trading Rights Globally. David Taylor, senior vice president of the Ingram Content Group made a presentation demystifying global distribution strategy for local publishers.
