NBT: 60 years of encouraging good literature
ON COMPLETING its 60 years, the National Book Trust, India has rolled out new innovative initiatives to promote book culture in the country.
Baldeo Bhai Sharma, Chairman, NBT while announcing the new initiatives being taken by the Trust informed that the 60 Years programme will be launched by Human Resource Minister, Prakash Javadekar by inaugurating a two-day National Seminar, Bhartiya Sahitya Mein Rashtriyata Ka Bodh that is scheduled to be from August 1 at India International Centre, New Delhi.
“To bring more and more people of rural areas closer to books, NBT will be organizing National Panchayat Book Fairs by involving Panchayti Raj institutions,” added Baldeo Bhai Sharma. He further said that NBT is planning to organize such book fairs in the states of Chhattisgarh, Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh in the first leg.
NBT publishes books in more than 30 Indian languages including minor languages like Kokborok, Bhili, Bhatri, Nepali among others. It is also now working towards the promotion and publication of books in San- skrit language and will organize National Sanskrit Book Fair where publishers will showcase books in Sanskrit. In order to encourage young women writers below forty years, NBT has launched Mahila Lekhan Protsahan Yojna under which NBT would publish original and unpublished works of young writers. Besides, NBT has added several new series in its publishing profile including Women Pioneers series, Veergatha series and Navalekhanmala.
In view of the increasing demand for digital content, the trust will organize digital publishing workshops in association with C-DAC and major IT companies like Microsoft for Indian language authors, publishers and other publishing professionals. NBT has so far brought out 150 e-books and now readers can buy NBT books online through its website.