The entire country has been locked down given the increasing cases of corona across the country. All have been instructed to stay in their homes by April 14. Earlier, all schools and colleges have also been closed and examinations have been cancelled. Many digital platforms are giving free access to help students and people.
- Meanwhile, the National Book Trust (NBT) has taken a commendable initiative. NBT under the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) has launched #स्टेहOmIndiaWithbooks (#Stay Home India With Books) to encourage people to stay in homes.
- Under this initiative, the best selling books can be downloaded and read for free through the Website of the National Book Trust. These books are in all languages of India including Hindi, English, Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati. Under this initiative, the best selling books can be downloaded for free from Mijo to Bodo and Nepali, Punjabi, Telugu, Urdu and Sanskrit languages.
National Book Trust
- The National Book Trust, India (NBT) is an apex body established by the Government of India (Department of Higher Education, Ministry of Human Resource Development) in 1957. NBT aims to promote the publication and promotion of books of high-quality literature in English, Hindi and Indian languages and make such literature available to the people at reasonable prices; Also, publishing book lists, book fairs/books. To arrange exhibitions and seminars and take all necessary steps to promote the habit of reading books among the people.
- The annual New Delhi World Book Fair is organized by NBT, the largest book festival in the Afro-Asian region. The New Delhi World Book Fair has earned a high reputation among international publishers for the past four decades.
- The National Children’s Literature Centre was established by NBT in 1993, which monitors, coordinates, organizes and supports the publication of children’s literature in various Indian languages. The National Centre for Children’s Literature is active in organizing workshops and exhibitions and encouraging setting up of reader fora to promote reading interest at the school level.
- NBT celebrates its foundation day on 1st August every year. Literary programmes and other activities are organized on the occasion.
- To make all youth in the age group of 15 to 25 active readers by the year 2025, NBT conducted the National Action Plan for Readership Development, Eng the Youth (National Action Plan for Readerdevelopment in youth) (NAPRDY). The first major step under NAPRDY was that a survey of national youth among rural and urban youth across the country was conducted, which was the responsibility of ncaer (National Council of Applied Economic Research). The objective was to determine the reading needs of the readers and the youth. The survey has been published by NBT as a report.
- The National Book Week, which began in 1982, is an initiative of NBT to upgrade the interest of books and book reading across the country. National Book Week is observed from 14th to 20th November every year during which NBT has a number of book promotion activities and literary events across the country such as book exhibitions, seminars, discussions, author-meet programmes, workshops and other literary Organizes activities.