22nd Delhi Book Fair begins today

The 22nd edition of the Delhi Book Fair this year aims to highlight initiatives undertaken by the central government for its ‘Sarva Shiksha Abhiyaan’ flagship programme to inculcate better reading habits among the younger generation. The 9-day-long fair organised by Indian Trade Promotion Organisation (ITPO) in association with Federation of Indian Publishers is scheduled to be held between August 27 to September 4 at Pragati Maidan in Delhi.

  • “We are trying to create better reading habits among the youth and get them involved in the process through the medium of book reading and story telling sessions, nukkad natak and magic shows. We will also have authors’ corners,” Jayanta Das, General Manager, ITPO said.
  • National campaigns launched in the past two years will find place in the Theme Pavillion which will be transformed into a selfie station.
  • Initiatives like ‘Make in India’, ‘Swachh Bharat Abhiyan’, ‘Digital India’, ‘Skill India’, ‘Startup India’, ‘Smart Cities’, ‘Startup India’, and ‘Umang’ (Unified mobile app for New-age Governance), will dominate the pavillion where visitors will be able to click selfies with cut-outs depicting the respective campaigns.
    “One of the major attractions will also be ‘selfie station’ which is in line with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visions of skill development, start ups, swacch bharat etc.
  • The fair, like all its previous editions will showcase a wide range of fictions and non-fictions, academic books besides plenty of children’s literature and other varieties of publications including digital innovations, in order to promote literacy and higher education among children and the youth.
  • Exhibitors include both Indian and foreign publishers, book sellers and distributors, educational institutions, manufacturers and dealers of teaching aids, periodicals and magazines and e-books. To make the fair more interactive for the visitors, ITPO has planned to introduce book reading sessions, band performances, on-the -spot competitions, film screenings, quizzes, street plays and storytelling sessions.