FPBAI convenes for 70th annual general meeting

The presidential report presented an overview of the happenings over the year stating that five meetings of the executive committee were held and some of the noteworthy discussions included the formation of the new team at the federation with 13 sub-committees.

The FPBAI has also commenced the publication of a bi-monthly newsletter in order to reach out to universities, libraries and institutes. 2,000 copies of a new members’ directory were also printed with details of 230 new members being added. 

Adding to their list of achievements, Ghai said “The federation has been participating in the New Delhi World Book Fair for a long time, but this year we were provided with a complimentary stall for the first time.” 

The federation also organised a masterclass on book marketing at IIC Delhi, on 27 July 2024 with speakers Subrahmaniam Seshadri, Monica Malhotra Kandhari, Raj D Mirchandani, Anusha Sundaram, Ajay Jain, Anuj Bahri, and Amit Kumar Singh. 

A training programme was organised by Anamika Shrivastava in order to integrate business and government agencies on the Government eMarketplace (GeM) platform. Simultaneously matters pertaining to arbitrary conditions put in by libraries and institutions in their invitation of tenders were addressed. “H Khurshid, our PR Consultant, suggested filing a legal notice under Section 80 (CPC). The final decision is still under review,” said Ghai.

Furthermore, the federation wrote to universities and institutes to curtail the practice of classifying books as ‘goods’, requesting them to purchase books from the open market without calling tenders. 

Addressing the matters about the central library of Moti Lal Nehru Medical College, the federation also wrote to them stating there are no government rules stating that advance payment may be taken for the subscription of journals. The FBPAI had also received a complaint from the administrative officer of Late Shri Lakhi Ram Agarwal Memorial Medical College, Raigarh regarding the non-supply of journals by FBPAI members stating the requirement of the unsent journals had also expired. A complaint letter was also received from Kanyakumari Government Medical College Asaripalla regarding the complaint of non-refunding the value of unsupplied journals by an FPBAI member. This matter too was addressed. 

The matters pertaining to the email received from Priyank Kaparia seeking intervention and prevention of journal counterfeiting, one nation one subscription, School of Planning and Architecture, University of Mysore, Letter Arista Publishers, communication of president of Sri Lanka for restoration of the value added tax exemption on books and VM books in Ghaziabad were also resolved by the FBPAI. 

The financial statement of the FPBAI was circulated to all those present.

The meet then proceeded with its award show facilitating Kailash Balani of Aditya Books, K Srinivasmurthy of K Srinivasmurthy, Ashwin Shah of Jaico Publishing House, Nitin Shah of Sapna Book House, Prakash Asharam of Ratnakar Booksellers, Vijay Ahuja of Delhi Book Store, Vinod Vasistha of Viva Books, Ish C Dawar of Disvan Enterprises, Chander Prakash of Universal Booksellers were given the Golden Award. Pradeep Arora of Universal Book Traders, Prashant Jain of Indica Publishers and Distributors and Pankaj Bhagwati of Unique Books were given the Lifetime Achievement Award. To culminate the event, Anupam Vij of Peepee Publishers and Distributors was given a special award.