The National Book Trust, India celebrates its 64th Foundation Day on 1st August 2020. The Annual Foundation Day lecture was held online E-attended by all NBT officials. Prof. Govind Prasad Sharma, Chairman NBT wished all the officials on the joyous occasion, and said, “The National Book Trust, India was established in the year 1957 with the objective to produce and encourage the production of good literature in Indian languages and to make such literature available at affordable prices. We are not just publishing books in all major Indian languages but also in various dialects and tribal languages, as well as in Braille.
Our recent projects in the state of Jharkhand and Mizoram are a few praiseworthy examples”. He also informed the audience about the various internal journals published by NBT for the benefit of the readers. As the Chief Guest at the event, and the main Speaker at the Foundation Day Lecture, Shri Prabhat Kumar, member of NBT’s BoT and a distinguished publisher talked about his own long association with NBT, and stressed upon the role that NBT has played in publishing quality research work for the special segments of readers, which otherwise no other publication house would do, because these books are not considered profitable.
Lauding the efforts of NBT in projecting the psycho-social impact of the pandemic through its publications, Shri Prabhat Kumar suggested that NBT should take this forward as it is the need of the hour. He further added, “NBT has the resources to bring together the literature of all States and write about our glorious history again. NBT takes up special issues and publishes diverse literature, and has continuously been taking up new initiatives to make them available in even the remotest areas of the country.
NBT’s ‘Book Exhibition Van’ program is one of its kind not just in India but globally as well”. Congratulating all NBT officials, Shri Yuvraj Malik, Director NBT said, “As a national institution, we are quite conscious of our role and the expectations that our authors, readers, and other stakeholders have. I always say that National Book Trust, India is not just a premier national institution, rather our mandate makes our reach possible to the international forums where we are able to showcase and represent the Indian publishing industry and its achievements.
During the global corona pandemic, we took it upon ourselves to remain engaged with the likely changing reading needs and to come up with programmes and initiatives that represents our commitment to promote book-mindedness and the culture of reading in the country”. Director NBT also informed all that in the coming future, NBT’s major focus is on mentoring kids as future authors, illustrators, editors to create a better ambience of reading in the society and the values attached to it. Also, NBT is going to come up in the virtual space as well, in a big way and take NBT to the community of readers in India as well as abroad through some interesting events and initiatives. On this occasion, as per tradition, officers and other staff who completed 25 years at NBT were felicitated for their hard work and dedication.
