Delhi’s world book fair concludes on Sunday

New Delhi World Book Fair 2024 concludes with record daily visitors of 100,000. Shuttle service arranged for last day. Children's pavilion and AI integration highlighted.

The 51st edition of the New Delhi World Book Fair (NDWBF), organised by the National Book Trust (NBT) of India, will conclude on Sunday which recorded an average of 100,000 visitors daily, officials aware of the matter said on Saturday.

On Sunday, officials said, the children’s pavilion will be a busy corner with storytelling sessions and communication workshops. (Vipin Kumar/HT Photo)

This number is expected to be higher on the last day, adding that a shuttle service has been arranged to facilitate the visitors and manage the crowd, officials from NBT said. The shuttle service will be available from three locations — Bhairon Mandir parking, gate no. 4 of the national stadium and from the National Gallery of Modern Art to gate no.4 of Pragati Maidan.

On Sunday, officials said, the children’s pavilion will be a busy corner with storytelling sessions and communication workshops. A presentation on the role of Saudi Arabia in promoting the Arabic language in India will be held at the international events corner as well as a discussion on Hindi cinema and literature in the theme pavilion, the officials added.

The book fair, organised by NBT under the ministry of education and ministry of industry and commerce, began on February 10 and was inaugurated by Dharmendra Pradhan, Union minister of education at Pragati Maidan. The fair has been housing over 2,000 book stalls with books in multiple languages to celebrate the theme of the NDWBF 2024, “Multi-Lingual India, A Living Tradition”.

This year’s fair had multiple highlights for the visitors — besides books, there were book releases accompanied by panel discussions. “There were several panel discussions on multilingual Indian culture, with an emphasis on why Indian literature, whether oral or written should be preserved and how this could further enrich our culture,” said an NBT official.

The fair this year also focussed on the expansion of the publishing industry, which was the focal point of the publishing conference. The conference explored how artificial intelligence can be integrated into the publishing world. Another key event of the book fair where AI became a central point was the inauguration of an e-learning platform, called E-Jaadui Pitara which included stories, riddles and puzzles for children and has been translated into 22 languages using AI.

NBT chairman, Milind Sudhakar Marathe ,said: “This e-learning platform aims at early childhood education and learning for multiple languages, as directed by the National Education Policy (NEP) of 2020.”