The New Delhi World Book Fair, hosted at

Pragati Maidan Pragati Maidan is a venue for large exhibitions and conventions in the city of New Delhi, India. It has an area of nearly 150 acres (more than 625,000m2) of exhibition space, being among the biggest exhibition centers in India. It is owned, o ...

in New Delhi, is

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

's second oldest book fair after the

Kolkata Book Fair The International Kolkata Book Fair (formerly Calcutta Book Fair) is a winter fair in Kolkata. It is a unique book fair in the sense of not being a trade fair—the book fair is primarily for the general public rather than whole-sale distribut ...

. The first New Delhi World Book Fair was held from March 18 to April 4, 1972 in roughly 6790 m² area with 200 participants. It was inaugurated by

V. V. Giri Varahagiri Venkata Giri (; 10 August 1894 — 24 June 1980) was an Indian politician and activist from Berhampur in Odisha who served as the 4th president of India from 24 August 1969 to 24 August 1974. He also 3rd vice president of India from ...

, then

President of India The president of India ( IAST: ) is the head of state of the Republic of India. The president is the nominal head of the executive, the first citizen of the country, as well as the commander-in-chief of the Indian Armed Forces. Droupadi Murmu ...

. This annual (previously biennial) event takes place in winters, and is organized by the National Book Trust (NBT), India. Since 2013, New Delhi World Book Fair is organised by National Book Trust (NBT) in association with India Trade Promotion Organisation (ITPO) annually at Pragati Maidan, New Delhi under MOU with ITPO. Apart from publication, NBT promotes national readership policies and also supports the growing markets of neighbouring countries. The National Centre for Children's Literature (NCCL), a wing of NBT organizes events for children in the Children's pavilion to promote children's literature and the national 'Readers Club' movement. India is the third biggest market for English publications with almost 12,000 publishers that publish around 90,000 titles a year in more than 18 languages. India's main publishing output is in the various Indian languages. The 2006 NDWBF witnessed 1,294 exhibitors on 38,000 m² (2004: 1,205 / 32.546) and attracted 1 million visitors including those from foreign countries such as USA, Bangladesh, France, Iran, Israel, Italy, Japan, Canada, Malaysia, Mauritius, Nepal, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Sri Lanka and Germany.

Year-wise Fair Details

2012

The 20th New Delhi World Book Fair 2012 was held at Pragati Maidan, New Delhi from February 25 to March 4, 2012. The fair was inaugurated by the then HRD Minister

Kapil Sibal Kapil Sibal (born 8 August 1948) is an Indian lawyer and politician. Sibal has represented several high-profile cases in the Supreme Court of India and is widely regarded as one of the famous lawyers of India. He is a Member of Parliament, in Ra ...

. A

corporate social responsibility Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is a form of international private business self-regulation which aims to contribute to societal goals of a philanthropic, activist, or charitable nature by engaging in or supporting volunteering or ethicall ...

initiative was undertaken by the publishing industry to launch the

Pink Ribbon The pink ribbon is an international symbol of breast cancer awareness. Pink ribbons, and the color pink in general, identify the wearer or promoter with the breast cancer brand and express moral support for women with breast cancer. Pink ribb ...

Book Tag at the Book Fair to support th
Indian Cancer Society
for a humanitarian cause. The theme of the 20th World Book Fair was 'Towards 100 years of Indian Cinema'.

2013

The 21st edition was scheduled during February 4–10, 2013 at Pragati Maidan. Under an MoU, the annual event was organized jointly by the National Book Trust (NBT) & India Trade Promotion Organization (ITPO) with the theme being 'Indigenous Voices: Mapping India's Folk & Tribal Literature' and France as the guest country. The then HRD Minister

Shashi Tharoor Shashi Tharoor (; ; born 9 March 1956 in London, England ) is an Indian former international civil servant, diplomat, bureaucrat and politician, writer and public intellectual who has been serving as Member of Parliament for Thiruvananthapuram, ...

inaugurated the Fair, presided by Dr.

Karan Singh Karan Singh (born 9 March 1931) is an Indian politician and philosopher. He is the son of the last ruling Maharaja of the princely state of Jammu and Kashmir, Sir Hari Singh. He was the prince regent of Jammu and Kashmir until 1952. From 19 ...

, M.P. & Chairman

Indian Council for Cultural Relations The Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR), is an autonomous organisation of the Government of India, involved in India's global cultural relations, through cultural exchange with other countries and their people. It was founded on 9 Apri ...

. Some of the events held for the first time included

cosplay Cosplay, a portmanteau of "costume play", is an activity and performance art in which participants called cosplayers wear costumes and fashion accessories to represent a specific character. Cosplayers often interact to create a subculture, ...

, school librarians' meet, artist & illustrators' gallery and the counsellors desk in the Children & Youth pavilion. An annual National Debut Youth Fiction Writers meet was also held to promote greater interest in readership.

2014

The 22nd edition was held during February 15–23, 2014 at Pragati Maidan. The Guest of Honour country was Poland, while the theme was 'Kathasagara: Celebrating Children's Literature'. New Delhi World Book Fair 2014 witnessed journalist

Abhigyan Prakash Abhigyan Prakash is Senior Executive Editor of ABP News. and columnist. He is also an Op-ed columnist for the Hindi newspaper Dainik Jagran. Prakash was on the prize jury of the November 2013 Press Council of India "National Awards for Excellence ...

launching a book titled, ''Development and Communication Morphosis'' written by Gaurav Sharma.

2015

The 23rd edition was held during February 14–22, 2015 at Pragati Maidan. The guest of honour country was Singapore with Korea as the focus country. The theme of the Fair was 'Suryodaya: Emerging voices from North East India'. The slogan of the fair was ''Books opening the mind. Doors opening the future.'' The Union HRD Minister

Smriti Irani Smriti Zubin Irani (''née'' Malhotra; born 23 March 1976) is an Indian politician and a former television actress and producer. She is a Minister in Union Cabinet of India since May 2019 currently administrating the Ministries of Women and C ...

inaugurated the Fair, while HRD Minister of State

Upendra Kushwaha Upendra Singh Kushwaha (born 6 February 1960) is an Indian politician and Member of Legislative Council of Bihar assembly. He was the former Minister of State for Human Resources and Development in the Government of India. He is former MP fro ...

inaugurated the Children's pavilion. National Book Trust under the ''Young India Library'' series was to put up for sale a new edition of a book on parables covering a new dimension of

Swami Vivekananda Swami Vivekananda (; ; 12 January 1863 – 4 July 1902), born Narendranath Datta (), was an Indian Hindu monk, philosopher, author, religious teacher, and the chief disciple of the Indian mystic Ramakrishna. He was a key figure in the intro ...

for developing scientific temper in children.

2016

The 24th New Delhi World Book Fair was held during January 9–17, 2016 at Pragati Maidan, New Delhi with China as the Guest of Honour Country. The theme of the 2016 edition was cultural diversity 'Vivid Bharat - Diverse India'. The message of the Sino-Indo partnership for the New Delhi Book Fair 2016 was the connecting rainbow -"Renaissance of Civilizations- Understanding through exchanges".The Union HRD Minister

inaugurated the fair.

2017

The 25th New Delhi World Book Fair was organised between January 7–15 at Pragati Maidan, New Delhi . The organizer of the NDWBF 2017 was National Book Trust- NBT, Ministry of Human resources Development, Government of India in collaboration with ITPO

India Trade Promotion Organisation India Trade Promotion Organisation (ITPO), headquartered at Pragati Maidan, is the nodal agency of the Government of India under aegis of Ministry of Commerce and Industry (India) for promoting country's external trade. ITPO is a Mini-Ratna ...

. The theme presentation of the 2017 edition was 'Manushi - Books Written on and by Women'. The focus of the Book Fair was on the 'Culture of Reading'. The Minister of State HRD Dr Mahenra Nsth Pandey inaugurated the fair. The highlights of the fair included 60 years of NBT history in the theme pavilion & children activities in the Children Pavilion including activities to celebrate Swami Vivekananda's birth anniversary as 'National Youth Day' on 12 January 2017. The book fair witnessed author interactions, book releases, national seminars on -''Best practices in Developing Reading skills & Research perspective in Developing Content for Children". The Director of the NDWBF 2017 Dr Rita Chowdhury, Director of NBT, and under chairmanship of Shri Baldeo Bhai Sharma, Chairman of National Book Trust, Ministry of Human Resource Development,Government of India overlooked the functioning of the fair.''

2018

The 26th New Delhi World Book Fair, January 6–14 at Pragati Maidan, New Delhi, was organised by the National Book Trust (NBT) in association with India Trade Promotion Organisation. The themed was environmental issues such as climate change,

global warming In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to E ...

, and

water pollution Water pollution (or aquatic pollution) is the contamination of water bodies, usually as a result of human activities, so that it negatively affects its uses. Water bodies include lakes, rivers, oceans, aquifers, reservoirs and groundwater. Water ...

. Guest of honor country was 'European Union'.

2019

The 27th New Delhi World Book Fair was held at Pragati Maidan, New Delhi January 5–13. The theme of the fair was ‘Books for Readers with Special Needs’ and Sharjah is the ‘guest of honours’ country.

2020

For 2020, the book fair moved to a virtual format due to the

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...

pandemic and was held 30-31 October, 2020.

References

External links

New Delhi World Book Fair

National Book Trust, India

New Saraswati House Publishers

Delhi State Booksellers' and Publishers' Association
{{Books Book fairs in India