20th New Delhi world book fair kicks off

The 20th New Delhi World Book Fair (NDWBF), biggest book carnival of Afro-Asian region, kicked off Saturday at the exhibition ground in national capital, Delhi. The 9 days extravaganza, organized biennially by the National Book Trust of India, was inaugurated by Kapil Sibal, Minister for Human Resource Development. The Theme of the 20th NDWBF is “Point-of-View, An International Rights Exhibition of Books on Indian Cinema Towards Hundred Years of Indian Cinema”. The theme will mainly look at the unique relationship of cinema and literature through a selected exhibit of over 300 books on Indian cinema, panel discussions, book launches, workshops, talks and screenings of films adapted from literary work. The theme pavilion will also host the launch of two books on the Art of Acting and influence of Urdu on Hindi Films on 29th February. This year the Fair is spread over 45,000 sq. meter area in 10 halls over 2500 stalls are displaying books of 1300 exhibitors. The foreign pavilion is showcasing international participation of about 30 publishers and organizations. These include Saudi Arabia, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Japan, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Germany, UAE, China, Turkey, South Korea, Spain, Belarus, France, Iran, Thailand, Israel and United Kingdom as well as agencies like UNIC , UNESCO and WHO. The first New Delhi World Book Fair was organized in 1972 with participation of 200 publishers.