JOIN USFocused on youth and children, the biennial World Book Fair organised by the National Book Trust in New Delhi concluded on Sunday, after registering over 700,000 visitors.
This year, a forum was provided to discuss issues concerning exchange of rights, particularly in the context of digitisation and negotiation for copyrights.
“We organised the fair to promote book-mindedness among people and to showcase the strengths and diversity of Indian book trade with its multilingual profile,” said National Book Trust (NBT) director M A Sikandar. The fair commemorated three important events - 100 years of Indian Cinema, 100 years of Delhi as the national capital and the 150th birth anniversary of Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore.
“Many books on Indian cinema that document the history of Indian cinema and its influence on our society, polity and culture, were an eye-opener for most of us in the fair," Sikandar said. A catalogue including 300 titles representing publications of 800 publishers in all major languages based on Indian cinema was released by NBT.
The catalogue contains information about copyright and contact details for rights enquires that will help publishers around the world get information about the rights to publish or translate any of the books based on Indian cinema.
The event was divided into three pavilions: rights pavilion, theme pavilion and children's pavilion with 2,500 stalls and 1,300 exhibitors.
Exhibitors from foreign countries like the US, Bangladesh, France, Iran, Israel, Italy, Japan, Turkey, Spain, China, Canada, Malaysia, Mauritius, Nepal, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Sri Lanka and Germany participated. In addition, Pink Ribbon Book Tag was been launched this year as an initiative of Sagi Publications. It will contribute Rs 1 for every book sold at the Book Fair to the Indian Cancer Society.