Iran has a huge capacity for book related collaborations: Dr Mohsin Jawadi

Jan 05, 2020

Books are the best means for creating friendship among nations

 

NEW DELHI, 5 January 2020: Dr Mohsin Jawadi, Deputy Minister for Culture & Guidance, Government of Islamic Republic of Iran, today invited Indian publishers to the International Book Fair in Tehran and said that we are prepared to closely collaborate with Indian authors and publishers in different book-related fields. He also proposed to form a collaborative working group, responsible for determining Iran's priorities in book-related collaborations.

 

Speaking at 'CEOSpeak (A Forum For Publishing) - Over Chairman's Breakfast', organized by FICCI, jointly with the National Book Trust (NBT), Mr Jawadi said,"Books are the best means for creating friendship among nations. In the past, Iranians were profoundly familiar with the Indian culture."

 

Highlighting the expansion of cultural ties with India, Dr Jawadi said that it is time to restart interactions between poets of Iran and India and revive the past glorious connections between the two countries.

The Deputy Minister said that this year, Yazd is the book capital of Iran with 'Children Books' as the theme. The city has had a long history of relations with India. He officially invited Indian Publishers to participate in Yazd Book Fair.

Prof Govind Prasad Sharma, Chairman, National Book Trust, Ministry of Human Resource Development, Govt of India, said that last year, National Book Trust, India was the Nodal Agency for the Guest of Honor Presentation of India at Abu Dhabi International Book Fair and at Guadalajara International Book Fair. "Both these fairs cater to a wide and large books markets in Arabic and Spanish languages respectively," he added.

 

Prof Sharma also highlighted the large-scale presence of Indian authors and publishers at these places has created a renewed interest in Indian books, and it is for our exporters and the Nodal Body like CAPEXIL to capitalize on these leads. "We participate in all major international book fairs with collective exhibit of books from India, and the Rights catalogue created by us is a rich data base of exporters from India, and importers abroad to make suitable choices," he said.

 

Mr Niknam Husainpur, CEO, Publication House, Iran, said that cooperation between Indian and Iranian publishers is an important aspect of Indo-Iran relations and Iran is willing to cooperate with Indian publishers. He also highlighted that, in Iran, the regional award for the Book of the Year - which was recently founded and is, in its second year, devoted to the work of Indian authors, who write about Iran. The regional awards will be held in Yazd in the next few days.

 

Mr Ratnesh Jha, Chair, FICCI Publishing Committee, said that the publishing industry has played an important role in building cultural ties between various countries across the world. "In the vision of India becoming a $ 5 trillion economy, the opportunity to create, consume and export world class content can not only create jobs in India but also add billions to the Indian GDP," he added.

 

Mr Dilip Chenoy, Secretary General, FICCI, said that India has a very vibrant ecosystem of publishing in India that is responsible for its impressive growth. India is one of the few major markets in the world which is still witnessing growth both in print and digital publishing. "Besides robust domestic market, we have a strong global presence. India has also moved up from the tenth position to the fifth position in international ranking on the basis of print volume," said Mr Chenoy.

 

Mr Kumar Vikram, Editor (English), Project Incharge, Research & Innovation, National Book Trust, Ministry of HRD, Government of India, made a presentation on India's presence as Guest Country at  Abu Dhabi International Book Fair and at Guadalajara International Book Fair, where more than 100 delegates from India participated as part of the scheme - Promotion of Indian Books Abroad. He also invited Indian publishers to participate in the Paris Book Fair in March 2020, where India is designated as the 'Guest of Honor' country.