NEW DELHI DECLARED WORLD BOOK CAPITAL
FOR 2003
NBT
TO BE NODAL AGENCY FOR YEAR LONG ACTIVITIES
New Delhi, the capital
of India, has been declared as the World Book Capital for the
year 2003. UNESCO, the International Publishers Association and
a number of other book-related international agencies, which have
found India to be the most suitable country to be given this honour
in the coming year, have jointly taken this decision.
The National Book
Trust (NBT) will be the nodal agency for the activities planned
to celebrate New Delhi being declared ‘World Book Capital’ for
2003. A Secretariat incorporating all people relevant for this
"Year" will be set up by the NBT and some concrete activities
are already on the anvil. This was announced by Dr. Murli Manohar
Joshi, Union Minister for Human Resource Development, while chairing,
here, last evening, the first meeting of the National Committee
set up for this purpose.
Dr. Joshi emphasised
that since inculcating the habit of book reading is extremely
vital, a good way would be to encourage children’s reading. But,
at present, good quality children’s literature is hardly there.
Once children have access to good, interesting books, they will
automatically imbibe the habit of reading, which then stays for
life. He also pointed out to the publishers present in the meeting
that their community, by publishing keys and guide books, had
also contributed towards discouraging serious reading amongst
students, especially for exams.
The Minister underlined
that as this was an International honour, this occasion must be
used to showcase Indian writing and publishing abroad. Books represent
the intangible appeal of Indian culture, he added. Giving the
instance of Tagore’s Geetanjali, Dr. Joshi said that writings
from India can make the country and its rich culture better known
to people all over the world.
A number of activities
and programmes are being planned for the "Year". These include
opening up book kiosks at various places in the country, establishment
of libraries and setting up of a permanent book pavilion at Pragati
Maidan. Also on the anvil is a plan to set up a National Book
Museum in New Delhi showcasing rare manuscripts/books on all branches
of knowledge, which will serve as a reference library. Publishing
of rare manuscripts and awards to publishers/authors of different
languages are also being mooted. Books’ distribution, besides
encouraging book reading habit through literacy campaigns is also
planned.
New Delhi has been
selected from amongst a large number of countries competing for
this honour from Europe, from the Americas and Asia and Africa.
New Delhi is the third city to be so chosen, the earlier two being
Madrid and Alexandria. For celebrating this year, the Ministry
of HRD has set up a National Committee. The patrons of the Committee
include Dr. Murli Manohar Joshi, Shri P. V. Narasimha Rao, Shri
I. K. Gujral, Shri T. N. Chaturvedi, Shri K. R. Malkani, Shri
Kedar Nath Sahni, and Smt. Sheila Dikshit. The Committee in itself
constitutes of 27members including Members of Parliament, representatives
from the publishing World, besides other eminent people from different
organisations.
