1300 participants at World Book Fair

Around 1300 publishers from both India and abroad will participate in the 17th New Delhi World Book Fair.

Around 1300 publishers from both India and abroad will participate in the 17th New Delhi World Book Fair to be held here from January 27 to February four.

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The book fair, which has already earned the distinction of being the largest in Afro-Asia, will be spread over an area of 38,000 square metres, with 2300 stalls in eight halls at the Pragati Maidan exhibition complex.

Focussing on the theme `Composite Culture in a Multicultural Society', the book fair will have 37 participants from 18 foreign countries and international bodies such as ILO, WHO, UNICEF and European Union.

The foreign countries participating in the fair include Pakistan, France, Israel, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Mauritius, Italy, Malaysia, Singapore, the US, the UK, Canada, Japan, Germany, Saudi Arabia and Iran.

Announcing the schedule of the World Book Fair, Bipan Chandra, Professor, National Book Trust (NBT), said among the novelties at this year's event would be a new `Youth Pavilion' in which young Parliamentarians like Rahul Gandhi, Sachin Pilot, Naveen Jindal, Omar Farooq and Manvendra Singh have been invited to interact with youngsters.

"This is the first time that we will have a pavilion dedicated to the youth. Let's see how it progresses in the years to come," Chandra said.

He also said that special emphasis will be put on encouraging publishers of works in regional languages.

"Publishers from 15 languages will be participating in the book fair, and we are providing them stalls at half the rates," Chandra said.