Delhi Book Fair celebrates the business of books

While doing so, the organiser, National Book Trust (NBT), India, an apex body under the Ministry of Human Resource Development, seems to have borrowed quite a few elements from the Frankfurt Book Fair, the gold standard on publishing marketplace.

So, this year, the New Delhi World Book Fair, which was held from 14 to 22 February 2015, at Pragati Maidan, saw a healthy participation of Indian book printers, in a space usually reserved for book publishers. We had the leading printers like Repro and Manipal, MBD and International Print O Pac, Sterling and Delhi Press vying for attention, not to mention other small-time printers.

While we are no longer losing our sleep over eBooks taking over printed books, Indian printers have now embraced the fact that to survive, one must diversify. One interesting market the printers are now exploring is the market of school education. In the last edition of NDWBF, Repro introduced ‘Rapples’, an initiative to supply digital content to schools. While MBD group is majorly into school textbooks, IPP has diversified into making school notebooks.          

The fair also hosted two exclusive business events for the book industry, the ‘CEO Speak’, a forum for publishing and ‘the Rights Table.’

Adding to its global stature, there was also a large participation from overseas players in a pavilion dedicated to foreign publishers. While Singapore was ‘the guest of honour’ country, the ‘focus country’ was Korea. Apart from the European countries, there were also participation from the Middle East countries, not to mention around 30-35 publishers from Pakistan.

Aside from the business of books, there were other assorted activities, including a showcase of art and culture from the Northeast states, in the theme pavilion, titled, ‘Suryodaya: Emerging Voices from North East.’ The visitors also got a chance to hear their favourite authors discuss their work at the ‘author’s corners,’ where well known authors in both Hindi and English, including Bollywood director Mahesh Bhatt, enthralled the audience. The author’s corners also saw release of several new books.  

While the focus remained the retail sale of books at a discounted price, the fair also had a dedicate pavilion for children’s content. The focus was on both education and fun, which attracted parents and their wards. There were also several workshops and activities for schoolchildren at the nine-day show.  

Among other events, NBT, in collaboration with Centre for Translation Studies, St Stephen’s College, New Delhi, organised a seminar on ‘Translation and the idea of India’.

This year, the organisers also introduced the concept of ‘best display award’ in four categories. The winner for the best display in foreign pavilion was Korea. Hachette Books won the award for the best display in English books category. Radha Swami Satsang, Beas, won the award for the best display in Hindi and Indian languages category, while Bharti Bhavan won the award for the best display in children’s books category.

According to JS Deepak, chairman and managing director, India Trade Promotion Organisation, who partnered with NBT to organise the event, the footfall this year at NDWBF was more than the last year, and the ticket sale was more than two lakh compared to last year.

The next year the show starts early, from 9 to 17 January 2016, and the guest of honour country will be China.

CEOSpeak: Print will survive
In the strictly by invitation event, ‘CEOSpeak Over Chairman’s Breakfast 2015’, organised by NBT, in association with FICCI, CEOs from the world of publishing and communication held out the view that while digital publishing is a great opportunity, print will never perish. In fact, the print medium will continue to grow and both will coexist.

The participants at the event included A Sethumadhavan, chairman, NBT, Virat Bhatia, president – IEA, South Asia, AT&T Communication Services, and chair, FICCI Committee on Communication and Digital Economy; Ameet Datta, partner, Saikrishna & Associates; Kim Kum-pyoung, director, Korean Cultural Centre, New Delhi; Kathy Lal, CEO, National Arts Council, Singapore; MA Sikandar, director, NBT; Rohit Kumar, advisor, Reed Elsevier; Karthika VK, chief editor, HarperCollins Publishers; and Bhanu Potta, advisor, World Reader.

The speakers expressed their concerns on issues like intellectual property, digital domain and the absence of ISBN in books publishers by small Indian language publishers. The representatives from the government said they are working towards creating a conducive policy framework for the publishing sector to flourish. Over 130 CEOs from the publishing community participated at the programme.

Rights Table: Initiating exchange
Insisting that the ‘Rights Table’ programme is an integral part of the NDWBF, A Sethumadhavan, chairman, NBT, said in the last three years since the programme was initiated, the number of participants have gone up by every passing year. The two-day (16 and 17 February 2015, at Pragati Maidan, New Delhi) event saw participation of 80 publishers from India and abroad, including the US, Canada, Tehran, Singapore, Taiwan, Malaysia, among others, who engaged in B2B activities to sell and buy rights of books in different languages.