Annual Reports

The Federation of Indian Publishers, in collaboration with the India Trade Promotion Organisation (ITPO), a premier trade promotion agency of the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Government of India, organized the 20th Delhi Book Fair from 23-31 August 2014 at Pragati Maidan, New Delhi. The Fair was inaugurated on 23 August 2014 by lighting of the lamp and ribbon cutting ceremony in the presence of Ms. V. Meera, General Manager, ITPO, Dr. Ashok Gupta, President, FIP, Shri Sudhir Malhotra, past President, FIP, Ms. Meenakshi Singh, OSD, ITPO

More than 300 publishers in about 550 stalls, representing different parts of India, including Agartala, Andhra Pradesh, Jharkhand, Kerala, Maharashtra, etc., participated in the Delhi Book Fair. The overseas participants were from China, UK and USA. This year, the Fair spread across the Hall No.8-12A. 50% subsidy was provided to regional language publishers to attract them to participate in the Fair.

The theme of this year’s Delhi Book Fair was Literature in Cinema which focussed on the impact of Literature on the Indian Society through the medium of cinema. A special Theme Pavilion had been set up where write-ups and photographs of important film and film personalities were prominently displayed. More than 100 titles published by various publishers were also displayed in the Theme Pavilion to make it attractive for the visitors.

FIP organized two Painting Competitions for school children in which more than 400 students participated – First Painting Competition was organized on 27 August 2014 exclusive for East Delhi Municipal Corporation School for students of Class III, IV and V. The second Painting Competition was organized on 30 August 2014 – open for all children under the age group of 5-10 and 10-16. On the first competition, Shri Mahesh Giri, Hon’ble M.P. from East Delhi awarded the winning candidates with cash rewards of Rs.1,000/- to candidates who were adjudged first, Rs.750/- and Rs.500/- who were placed in second and third place respectively. In addition, Shri Giri gave away 9 consolation prizes. Similarly, Shri Parvesh Sahib Singh, Member of Parliament from West Delhi, gave away prizes to candidates who participated in painting competition held on 30 August 2014. Both the Painting Competitions were appreciated by parents and children and were a grand success.

To make the event more meaningful, a number of conferences, seminars, book releases, book launches, meet the author get-togethers arranged by leading publishers and a host of cultural activities were also organized. The Theme Pavilion and children’s activities proved to be a major attraction during the Fair. Dozen of buses of school children of various schools, even from outside Delhi, accompanied by their teachers were coming to the Fair every day. Federation had arranged 10 Air-conditioned mini buses which plied within Pragati Maidan from different gates of ITPO ferrying visitors to the Fair Grounds. Some of the important events organized were: a Panel Discussion followed by Kavi Sammelan by the Authors Guild of India; ‘Pustakon se Manch Par Sant’ by the Bachpan Society; Hindi Baal Patnikon ka Paridrishya by Publication Division. A Workshop relating to Library Science by Ranganathan Research Circle; National Conference on Possibilities and Challenges for the inclusion of children with special needs by S.R. Publishers; Panel Discussion on Children Literature for environment protection and sustainable development by TERI, Interactive Discussion on Intellectual Property jointly hosted by United States and India Educational Foundation (US/EF) organized by American Embassy; Kavita ke Sath ek Poetic Evening by Indian Society for Authors and Writing Activity for University students under the banner of Young Expression by Lekhika Sangh. A number of book launches and book release function were organized by different publishers during the Fair. FIP organized the 34th Competition for Awards for Excellence in Book Production in respect of publications produced in India during 2013-14. We had received 1100 books from 78 publishers from all over India including language publishers and Jury selected 91 titles from 45 publishers for Awards. Out of these 27 titles had been selected for First prize, 35 titles for second prize and 29 titles for Certificate of Merits. Dr. Murli Manohar Joshi, Member of Parliament (Lok Sabha) gave away the prizes at a solemn ceremony held on 29 August 2014.

The Fair drew a big response from visitors, book lovers, booksellers, buyers, academicians and foreign visitors/tourists having visited the Fair not only from Delhi-NCR but also from neighbouring States. A large number of youth and children from different schools regularly visited the Fair. There was a huge demand for children, reference, religious and philosophical books. For the first time, ITPO had taken two new initiatives – (i) Online ticketing and (ii) Book Fair App. Both these new initiatives were quite successful with the book lovers helping them easy and hassle free entry to Fair Grounds and easy navigation in locating the publishers and their stalls. The Fair was extensively covered both by the print and electronic media, with most of the TV channels carrying the news of the Book Fair regularly.

Awards in the form of Gold, Silver and Bronze medals for best stalls in three categories i.e. English, Hindi and regional languages as well as in the stationery segment, were given at a valedictory function held on the last day of the Fair by ITPO. NBT (an autonomous organization under the Ministry of HRD) had sanctioned an amount of Rs.15 lakhs as grant-in-aid for organizing the Delhi Book Fair 2014 and other book promotional activities and subsidy to regional/Hindi language publishers for their participation in the Fair. FIP is thankful to NBT and Ministry of Human Resource Development for providing grant.

The Federation of Indian Publishers, in collaboration with the India Trade Promotion Organisation (ITPO), a premier trade promotion agency of the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Government of India, organized the 21st Delhi Book Fair from 29 August to 6 September 2015 at Pragati Maidan, New Delhi. The Fair was inaugurated by Dr. Jitendra Singh, Hon’ble Minister of State for development of North Eastern Region (Independent charge) and Minister of State for Prime Minister Office, Minister of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions and Department of Atomic Energy and Department of Space as Chief Guest and Shri J.S. Deepak, Chairman and Managing Director of ITPO, presided over the inaugural function. Others present on the occasion included Dr. Ashok Gupta, President of FIP, Mrs. Meenakshi Singh, OSD, ITPO and foreign diplomats and publishing fraternity, writers, philosophers and many leading publishers and participants of both Delhi Book Fair and Stationery Fair.

Shri J.S. Deepak, Chairman and Managing Director, ITPO in his brief welcome address highlighted the salient features of Delhi Book Fair and apprised about the present scenario of the book publishing industry and the problems confronted by them in their day-to-day functioning. Inaugurating the Fair, Dr. Jitendra Singh spoke at length about the significance of books in achieving global integration and building literary bridges across the socio-cultural linguistic and religious diversities. He advised the publishers to adopt latest technology which is important for the growth of the publishing industry. He expressed happiness over the growth of publishing industry and its integration with the global market. Shri Singh further requested publishers to produce constructive, secular and progressive books which would give fillip to international collaboration in publishing and business transaction.

Shri Jitendra Singh gave his blessings and well-wishes for successful 21st Delhi Book Fair and asked FIP to come up with a note/representations detailing problems faced by the publishing fraternity, for taking up with the concerned respective Ministry for redressal. The Fair was, thereafter, formally inaugurated by Dr. Jitendra Singh, Hon’ble Minister of State for North Eastern Region, by lighting of the lamp. Dr. Ashok Gupta, Shri J.S. Deepak & Mrs. Meenakshi Singh, OSD, ITPO also joined him. Earlier in his address, Dr. Ashok Gupta, President, FIP, talked about the role of Book Fairs in developing book culture in the society and the importance for the industry to promote and market their books. The President apprised the Minister about the problems and issues faced by the publishing industry. He requested the Hon’ble Minister to take up the matter of GST with the Council formed on GST to retain books, e-books, CD-ROMs etc. in the negative list of the Central and State GST.

More than 200 publishers in about 460 stalls, representing different parts of India, including Agartala, Andhra Pradesh, Jharkhand, Kerala, Maharashtra, etc., participated in the Delhi Book Fair this year. The overseas participants were from China, UK and USA. This year, the Fair spread across the Hall No.8-12. The theme of this year’s Delhi Book Fair was Skill Development. In this connection, a special theme pavilion had been set up where write-ups on Skill Development were prominently displayed. Books on Skill Development received from various publishing houses were also displayed in the theme pavilion to attract the attention of the visitors.

FIP organized two painting competitions for school children on 3 September 2015 during the Delhi Book Fair. The competition was open to all children under the age group of 5-10 years and 11-15 years. The Jury consisting of eminent painters was constituted to evaluate the paintings. About 400 children participated in the painting competition. The Jury selected 16 paintings for Awards under the age group of 5-10 years. There were one First prize, two Second prizes and three Third prizes. In addition, there were 11 consolation prizes. Jury gave away the prizes as per performance. Similarly, the Jury selected 16 paintings for Awards under the age group of 11-15 years and gave away prizes as per performance of the child. Both the painting competitions were appreciated by parents and children and were a grand success. FIP also organized Debate competition on 2 September 2015 on ‘Use of Digital Books in Class Rooms for the students of XI and XII classes. About 150 students had participated in the Debate competition. Jury constituted for the purpose gave away cash award of Rs.11,000/- who was adjudged first and Rs.5,100/- and Rs.2,100/- who were placed second and third respectively. The Debate competition was appreciated by one and all.

To make the event more meaningful, a number of conferences, seminars, book releases, book launches, meet the author get-togethers arranged by leading publishers and a host of cultural activities were also organized. A Panel Discussion followed by Kavi Sammelan by the Authors Guild of India; a Workshop relating to Library Science by Ranganathan Research Circle; Panel Discussion on Smart Green Civilization; Literary Programme by Bharatiya Jnanpith; Uva Abhivykti (Expression of Youth) by Lekhika Sangh; Author Talk by Marcus du Sautoy organized by British Council Library; and Story-telling and debate by Amity University Press. FIP organized the 35th Competition for Awards for Excellence in Book Production in respect of publications produced in India during 2014-15. We had received 1400 books from 86 publishers from all over India including language publishers and Jury selected 108 titles from 56 publishers for Awards. Out of these 38 titles had been selected for First prize, 37 titles for second prize and 33 titles for Certificate of Merits. Shri Baldeo Bhai Sharma, Chairman, NBT gave away the prizes at a solemn ceremony held on 4 September 2015. The Federation of Indian Publishers in association with Hindi Working Samiti organized first-ever Symposium on “Nurturing Reading Culture in Hindi Readers, Development of Public Libraries and Challenges in Publishing in Hindi”, on 6 September 2015 during the Delhi Book Fair 2015. Shri B.K. Sharma, Chairman, Raja Rammohun Roy Library Foundation, who was the Chief Guest, inaugurated the Symposium by lighting of the ceremonial lamp.

Shri Yogendrapal Tyagi, Presidcent of the Samiti welcomed Shri B.K. Sharma and other participants. He, in his welcome address, threw light on problems and challenges confronted by the Hindi Publishers. Shri Pramod Bhushan Mangla, Reader and Tagore National Fellow, Ministry of Culture, in his address, spoke about the problems of maintenance of public libraries. Bachpan Society for Children’s Education and Culture had organized a programme on “Kaushal ke Roop Anek” on 1 September 2015 during Delhi Book Fair 2015. More than 150 children from 5 NGOs: Ankur, Prathan, Jaishankar Memorial, Nirman and Gyan Deep had participated in the programme. Smt. Meenakshi Rathore, Senior Project Advisor, Ministry of Women and Child Development on Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao was the Chief Guest, who inaugurated the programme. The Guest speaker Poonam Mehrotra, a senior journalist interacted with the children on skill development in India. The children from each NGO put up a skit to depict a skill as to how skills could be used professionally for the betterment of the society. A Quiz show was also held among children. A child giving correct answer was given a book as a prize. A book written by one of the members of the Bachpan Society was also released. At the end, books were distributed amongst the children. The programme was appreciated by one and all who were present at the function.

The Theme Pavilion and children’s activities proved to be a major attraction during the Fair. Dozen of buses of school children of various schools, even from outside Delhi, accompanied by their teachers used to come to the Fair every day. Federation had arranged 10 Air-conditioned mini buses which plied within Pragati Maidan from different gates of ITPO ferrying visitors to the Fair Grounds. The Fair provided unique platform for business to business transactions, establishing new contacts, entering into co-publishing arrangements, translation of copyright arrangements, while providing an opportunity to meet international and national publishers. The Fair drew a big response from visitors, book lovers, booksellers, buyers, academicians and foreign visitors/tourists having visited the Fair not only from Delhi-NCR but also from neighbouring States. A large number of youth and children from different schools regularly visited the Fair.

The Fair was extensively covered both by the print and electronic media, with most of the TV channels carrying the news of the Book Fair regularly. Awards in the form of Gold, Silver and Bronze medals for best stalls in three categories i.e. English, Hindi and regional languages as well as in the stationery segment, were given at a valedictory function held on the last day of the Fair by ITPO. NBT (an autonomous organization under the Ministry of HRD) had sanctioned an amount of Rs.7 lakhs as grant-in-aid for organizing the Delhi Book Fair 2014 and other book promotional activities and subsidy to regional/Hindi language publishers for their participation in the Fair. FIP is thankful to NBT and Ministry of Human Resource Development for providing the grant.

FIP organised the 34th competition for Awards for Excellence in Book Production in respect of publications produced in India during 2013-2014. The Federation invited publishers from all over the country to send their entries and received a total of 1100 books from 78 publishers. The Jury selected 91 titles from 45 publishers for Awards. Out of these, 27 titles had been selected for the first prize, 35 titles for the second prize and 29 titles for Certificate of Merit.

The Awards were given at a solemn ceremony held on 29 August 2014 during the Delhi Book Fair. Dr. Murli Manohar Joshi, Member of Parliament (Lok Sabha), was the Chief Guest and Shri Malay Shrivastava, Executive Director, India Trade Promotion Organisation, was the Guest of Honour, at the ceremony. Dr. Murli Manohar Joshi, spoke at length about the importance of books in life and said that their place is very high from time immemorial. He said of all the inventions made by man, the invention of book is first and foremost. He said, as a result of advancement in Science and Technology, e-books had revolutionized the reading habit and percentage of people preferring e-books had increased considerably but, it would never wipe out the print books/physical books altogether. Physical books had their own importance. One could read anywhere, while sitting, standing, travelling, lying on bed. Physical books are good companions all times. He said it was through the medium of books there was a explosion of our culture. These books throw flood of light on our Scriptures - Ramayana, Mahabharata, Gita, four Vedas and 18 Puranas and also on the historical occurrences of the past. He added these books contain the wisdom and experience of great thinkers, philosophers and sages.

Earlier, in his welcome address, Dr. Ashok Gupta, President, FIP, said the Awards for Excellence in Book Production which are given every year at the time of the Delhi Book Fair are industry benchmarks in assessing national book production standards. The objective of the competition for Awards is to motivate publishers to improve the quality of production of books not only in the area of paper, printing and binding but also designing and typography, layout and readability, and the general feel of the book. The Awards which used to be restricted to only members of the Publishers Associations have now been made open to all publishers. Any publisher in India is eligible to compete. The public sector publishing houses, the Universities and State Textbook Bureaus are also eligible to participate in this competition.

The credit for this constant endeavour to match the best in the world goes to each one of the recipients, and to all members of the book industry. Striving for excellence too is to be applauded. In this direction, the Federation of Indian Publishers has played the vital role of a catalyst in encouraging publishers by recognizing their efforts and by drawing the attention of others to what can be achieved even with relatively limited resources. This was one of the objectives FIP had defined for itself and has been achieved to a great extent. The members of the Jury comprised eminent experts familiar with different aspects of book production. They were Shri K. Srinivasa Rao, Secretary, Sahitya Akademi, Prof. N.N. Sarkar, former Associate Professor of the Indian Institute of Mass Communication, Shri V.K. Malik, past President of All India Federation of Master Printers, and Dr. Inderjeet, Principal of College of Vocational Studies. The function was attended by approximately 150 people comprising leading publishers, authors, writers, booksellers, librarians, participants in the Delhi Book Fair and the Awardees.

The Federation of Indian Publishers organised the 35th competition for Awards for Excellence in Book Production in respect of books published in India during 2014-2015. The Awards were given at a solemn ceremony held on 4 September 2015 during the Delhi Book Fair. Shri Baldeo Bhai Sharma, Chairman, National Book Trust, India, New Delhi, was the Chief Guest at the ceremony. Speaking on the occasion, Shri Baldeo Bhai Sharma, complimented the Federation for instituting awards in different categories, given to publishers to encourage and motivate them to improve the quality of production of books. Shri Sharma added that he was very happy to know that the Federation had been giving away Awards for Excellence in Book Production every year for the last 35 years to assess national book production standard.

Shri Baldeo Bhai Sharma said, no doubt, as a result of advancement of Science and Technology, e-books had revolutionized the reading habit and percentage of readers preferring e-books had increased considerably but he said it would neither wipe out physical books nor physical books would extinct or disappear altogether as they were our storehouses of culture, heritage and civilization. He further added that the root of our culture and publication of shastras go back to ancient time. The Rigvedas is the oldest book and this fact had been recognized and corroborated by UNESCO. He said the content of Vedas, a boundless ocean, teaming with priceless gems, and the Hindu world is like a sea and who finds its way into its bosoms gets purified. He further added it was through medium of physical books, there was an explosion of our culture. At the end, he said that books take us to a higher place where one finds the purpose of life. He advised the publisher fraternity to publish good books, suitable to readers at all level, to wipe out illiteracy. He concluded that India is a world in itself, a legacy of our rich culture and civilization which shape all things.

Earlier, in his welcome address, Dr. Ashok Gupta, President, FIP, informed that the Federation had been the first organization which instituted awards in different categories of books to be given to publishers to motivate and encourage them to improve the quality of production of books. The Awards for Excellence in Book Production which were given during the Delhi Book Fair had been giving away for the last 35 years. They were benchmarks for assessing national book production standard. The President informed, the Awards which used to be restricted to only members of the Federation have now been made open to all publishers. Dr. Ashok Gupta said that it is a matter of great satisfaction that the Indian books can very well match international production standards. At the International Book Fairs, be it at Frankfurt, London, Moscow or Beijing, Indian books are displayed with pride alongside those from advanced countries. This was not so till about few years ago and the credit for this constant endeavour generally goes to the Indian publishing fraternity and particularly to each one of the recipient striving for excellence in book production.

The President informed that the Federation had received 1400 books from 86 publishers. However, the jury had selected 108 titles of 56 publishers for Awards. Out of these, 38 titles had been selected for first prize, 37 titles for second prize and 33 titles for Certificate of merit. The jury members comprised eminent personalities well-versed with different aspects of publishing. They were Prof. N.N. Sarkar, former Associate Professor of Indian Institute of Mass Communication, Shri Virender Malik, Proprietor, Print and Publishing and Shri Tarun Dey, Asstt. Director (Production), NBT, India. The function was attended by approximately 175 people comprising leading publishers, authors, writers, booksellers, librarians, participants in the Delhi Book Fair and the Awardees.

FIP, in collaboration with the Gujarat Prakashak Mandal (GPM), Ahmedabad, organized a National Convention of Indian Languages Publishers on 21 June 2014 at the Karnavati Club, S.G. Road, Ahmedabad. The Convention was inaugurated by lighting of the Lamp by Shri Rashmikant Shah, President of the Convention, Dr. Ashok Gupta, President, FIP, Shri Sudhir Malhotra, past President, FIP, Shri Amar Nath Varma, past Vice-President (N), FIP, Shri Viplav Pujara, Hony. Secretary, GPM and Shri Manubhai Shah, Treasurer, GPM. According to Indian tradition, all the participants stood up and offered prayer to Devi Saraswati, the Goddess of Learning. Dr. Ashok Gupta in his welcome address, apprised the participants about FIP and its objectives, activities and important role it plays to promote professional standards amongst members and provide a forum to discuss their problems at national and international level. The topics discussed during the Convention were (i) Piracy and Copying of Books Published; (ii) E-Books and their Effect on the Market; (iii) Marketing Strategies; (iv) Problems of Translating Books from Gujarati and Marathi to other Languages and vice versa; and (v) Copyright and Indian Reprographic Rights Organisation (IRRO).

Shri Dhaval Shah and Shri Navin Joshi of S.Chand Group spoke about Piracy and Copying of Books Published through audio-visual presentation which were self-explanatory. Shri Sudhir Malhotra briefed the audience about the advent of E-books and its impact on the market. He said although in our country, the advent of E-books is at nascent stage but in the coming period, e-books would capture the market and affect the sale of physical books. Shri Rajendra Patel of Gujarati Sahitya Parishad, Ahmedabad and Shri Sunil Mehta of Mehta Publishing House, Pune, emphasized on the importance of translation from Gujarati to other Indian languages and vice-versa which they said were necessary for the spread of literature in a country like India where there are 25 national languages and numerous dialects.

Shri Sudhir Malhotra, Chairman, IRRO, briefed the audience in detail about the establishment of Indian Reprographic Rights Organisation (IRRO) which was registered by the Central Government as a Copyright Society in the field of literary works. He said as we all know photocopying of published works in the educational institutions and business establishments etc. have become very common these days. The principal objective of IRRO is to collect fees from the educational institutions/corporate offices and business establishments and distribute the collected fees amongst authors publishers and other stakeholders. He asked the publishers who were present there to become members of IRRO which would prove beneficial to them in near future.

The National Convention of Indian Languages Publishers held from 7 – 8 February 2015 at Grand Residency, Badambari, Cuttack. It was organized jointly by The Federation of Indian Publishers, New Delhi and Odisha Publishers & Booksellers Association, Cuttack. More than 100 delegates from Odisha, West Bengal, Bihar, Manipur, Andhra Pradesh, Tamilnadu and New Delhi, participated in the Conference.

Inaugural Session
Inaugural Session held at 10.00 a.m. in the Grand Residency Hall under the Presidentship of Shri Pitambar Mishra, President, Odisha Publishers & Booksellers Association. Shri Satakadi Hota, President, Odisha Sahitya Academy inaugurated the Convention and briefed on the problems of a publication in regional language. Shri Baishnab Ch. Parida – M.P. the Chief speaker had given importance to publish more books in Oriya Language. Dr. Ashok Gupta, President, FIP spoke on the aims & objectives of the Convention and what is the necessity of holding this type of Convention.

Seminars
Subject of 1st Seminar was – Publishers & Authors Relation (Copyright & Reprographic Rights Organisation (IRRO) Eminent Odia publisher Nrusing Prasad Mishra, Dr. Ashok Gupta, President, FIP, Shri Ramesh K. Mittal, Hony. General Secretary, FIP discussed on the above subject and requested all publishers to have signed agreement with authors and follow the copyright Act. Subject of 2nd Seminar was – E-Book Problem and Prospect: Former Asstt. Director of National Library, Kolkata, Mr. Safalya Kumar Nandi introduced the topic with his presentation and Dr. Ashok Gupta discussed about the status of e-books in India and how it is evolving and why all publishers including language ones should gradually adopt this technology in their day-to-day work environment.

Subject of 3rd Seminar was Problems of Translating Books From Odiya To Other Indian Languages and vice versa: Sangram Jena, eminent author and central Sahitya Academy Awardee delivered a thought provoking speech which was highly appreciated by all the delegates. Subject of 4th Seminar was Book Promotion and Marketing Strategies: Shri Bhanudeb Dutta, Kolkata, Dr. Ashok Gupta, President, FIP, Shri Amar Nath Verma, Executive Committee Member, FIP and Ajoy Kumar Mishra, Odisha Publishers & Booksellers Association discussed different problems faced by publishers, Problems of Government purchase, College & School purchase and cost of publication were also discussed. Dr. Gupta emphasized the role of Internet in marketing of books and involving authors for promotion of their books through internet.

The Subject of 5th Seminar was – Piracy: Shri Sanjib Raghav of S.Chand & Co.Ltd. spoke on the piracy problems of Indian Books and steps to be taken to prevent piracy. It is a headache as well as revenue loss to the publishers.

Closing Session
The closing session was presided by Dr. Ashok Gupta, President, FIP. Shri Saumya Ranjan Patnaik, Editor, Oriya Daily “Sambad” was chief guest and Dr. Bijay Anand Singh, President, Utkal Sahitya Samaja was the chief speaker of closing session. They discussed on the problems & prospects of publishers of India. Shri Bijay Kumar Padhihari, the Convenor of the Seminar was the co-ordinator of the Convention. The Convention was a milestone in the history of Odisha which encourage the publishers to move forward.

The Federation of Indian Publishers, in collaboration with Booksellers and Publishers Association of South India (BAPASI), organized the National Convention of Indian Languages Publishers at Hotel Savera, Mapple Hall, Chennai on 2 May 2015. More than 50 delegates had participated in the Convention. Dr. Ashok Gupta, President, FIP, inaugurated the Convention. In his inaugural address, he apprised the participants about the FIP and its objectives, activities and important role it plays to strengthen and promote professional standards amongst members and create a forum not only to discuss their problems at national and international level but also address them satisfactorily. He also emphasized the necessity and importance of holding such Conventions organized from time to time for the development and exchange of knowhow of publishing industry.

In his welcome address, Shri S.M. Meenashi Somasundaram, President, Booksellers and Publishers Association of South India (BAPASI) said that he was extremely happy to welcome Dr. Ashok Gupta, President, Federation of Indian Publishers and distinguished speakers, who had come to participate in the Convention. Stressing on the importance of developing the arena of Indian languages in Southern India for the benefit of publishing industry, he said a positive outcome would emerge from the proceedings of the Convention which would provide them the necessary guidelines and direction for future. The topics discussed during the Convention were: (i) Challenges in translations from Tamil to other Indian languages and vice versa; (ii) Writing a Book – an author’s perspective; (iii) Copyright and Indian Reprographic Rights Organisation (IRRO); (iv) Marketing Strategies; (v) E-books and their effect on the market; (vi) VAT Implications for Publishing; and (vii) Plagiarism and Piracy in the book industry.

Challenges Ahead of us - Shri Olivannan Gopalakrishnan, Treasurer, BAPASI, spoke briefly about the challenges confronted by the publishing industry and stressed that all publishers have to work hand in hand to resolve these problems faced by them. He further said in publishing, the role of Indian language publishers was very important but, somehow, most of the Indian language publishers had confined themselves to publishing the books of their own language. He emphasized that there was a need that they should publish books of other languages also.

Challenges in translations from Tamil to other Indian languages and vice versa - Shri Kuppuswamy, Translator, briefed the participants on the importance of translation from Tamil to other Indian languages and vice-versa which he said was utmost important and necessary for the spread of Indian culture across the country. He said in a country like India where there are 25 languages and numerous dialects, the translation from one language to another is the primary need. He said that NBT had taken a number of steps by holding Conventions and Book Fairs across the country but translation from Tamil to other Indian languages and vice-versa was lagging behind. He further said for publishing a translated book, strenuous efforts and huge expenses were involved like getting a good translator to keep the spirit of original work alive in the translated version. Further every translated works should be rechecked by a proficient translator also.

Writing a Book – an author’s perspective - Pazha. Athiyaman in his address focused on a few insights which were pre-requisite and helpful for writing a new book. At the outset, the author is to define his topic which appealed his passion. The author should be well-versed and thorough on the subject so that his style of writing and expression of ideas should be full of flow to make his book worthy of an Award Nomination. The author should also be in touch with experts on the subject who should give him feedback on his work. He further said for writing a book, he should choose a publisher who should be proactive, knowledgeable and reputable. Although publishers have extensive marketing strategies for the publicity and promotion of the publications, yet, it is still author’s responsibility to expand his book’s readership

Copyright and Indian Reprographic Rights Organisation (IRRO) - Ms. Swapna Sundar, CEO, IP Dome, briefed the audience about the establishment of Indian Reprographic Rights Organisation (IRRO), registered by the Central Government as a Copyright Society in the field of literary works. The principal objective of IRRO is to collect fees from the educational institutions/corporate offices and business establishments and distribute the collected fees amongst authors publishers and other stakeholders.

Marketing Strategies - Shri Badri Seshadri, New Horizon Media briefed the audience on the marketing strategies of their publications. Although strategies vary from publishers to publishers but the objectives and goals are the same. He further emphasized the ways to do it cost effective by using various utilities provided over the internet. Publishers who had participated in the Convention took keen interest in the discussions and explained their difficulties experienced by them in marketing their publications but the methods and strategy adopted by each of them differ from publishers to publishers

E-Books – already at our doorstep - Shri Murthy Raju, Founder, Book Connect briefed the audience about the advent of e-books and its impact on the market. He said although, the advent of e-books is at nascent stage in our country at present but in the coming period, e-books would capture the market and affect the sale of physical books. He further said in the electronic age, we the publishers should be prepared to adapt ourselves to cope with the market trends.

VAT Implications for Publishing - Shri RSJ Ravindran, Consultant, briefed the participants about the VAT Implications for publishing. He said that the book being the prime medium of transmission of education and knowledge, they should be exempted from all types of taxes – sales tax, VAT, Octroi etc. He said books from across the world are allowed into the country without any duty and are imported at zero duty tariff. He further said at present books are not exempted under the Goods and Services Tax. He cautioned that if the books are not included in the negative list of GST regime, it would prove suicidal for the publishing industry.

Plagiarism and Piracy in the book industry
Shri Gandhi Kannadasan spoke on Plagiarism and Piracy which are menance across the country. He said a large scale of books are copied and pirated all over the country and they are badly affecting the publishing industry. The problem is growing day-by-day and is constant headache as well as revenue loss to the publishers. He explained the strategies as to how these menance could be eradicated. He dwelt on the enforcement of Copyright Act and the most important aspects of copyright enforcement were to create awareness by publicity through the media and organization of Seminars and Symposium across the country.

Dr. Ashok Gupta, President, FIP, summed up all topics deliberated at the Convention and suggested measures to be taken for the eradication of challenges and problems faced by the publishing industry. He also thanked the President, Secretary, Treasurer and other important members of the BAPASI for making excellent arrangement and creating cogenial atmosphere for holding the Convention All the Conventions were well organized and very well attended. The Conventions were concluded with a vote of thanks. NBT (an autonomous organization under the Ministry of HRD) had sanctioned grant-in-aid for the organization of these National Conventions.

At present, Books, e-Books and CD-ROMs (other than Entertainment) are not exempt from Goods and Services Tax – Central GST at the Union level and State GST at State level, introduced by the Government of India. The Ministry of Finance had issued two negative lists of services in 2011 but surprisingly books have not been included in these lists. From time immemorial, the country has a long and glorious tradition of not taxing knowledge and learning. Books being the prime medium of transmission of education and learning, have always been exempt from all taxes — VAT, octroi duty and other taxes etc. Even books in other parts of the world, are allowed into the country without any duty and are also imported at zero-duty/tariff.

As and when the country transforms itself into a ‘knowledge society’, education and books play a significant role in transformation and is considered key driver to speed up the changes. The current tax- free status of books will assume even greater importance in hastening universalisation of education. India has become a knowledge-based economy utilising its intellectual capital in the international arena. The growth of Indian economy and foreign exchange earnings due to knowledge and information explosion are now universally acknowledged. The current tax relief for books has been one of the key drivers of this growth. Universalisation of education by increasing Access to tools like books or sustenance in providing further impetus to the informational economy can be carried forward by adopting liberal tax policy in respect of aids in education and dissemination of knowledge.

The Federation of Indian Publishers has sent representations to the Empowered Committee of the Ministry of Finance, Government of India, various officials of the Thirteenth Finance Commission and 680 Members of Parliament both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha requesting for retention of formal education services like books, journals, magazines and newspapers available in printed form, CD-ROMs, and e-books in digital format available both online through Internet or offline, containing any work of art or literature or science or technology or any field of knowledge and educational nature, other than entertainment, as these require to be comprehensively covered, under the exempted list under both Central GST and State GST.

At our request, the International Publishers Association (IPA) had also sent a Memorandum to the Empowered Committee recommending that books, e-books, CD-ROMs may be brought under the exempted or negative list in the GST regime. Dr. Satyanarayan Jatiya, MP (RS), had raised a Starred Question in this regard on the floor of the House. The Finance Minister had responded in writing acknowledging having received a representation from FIP and confirming that the subject matter would be taken up by the GST Council. Shri Bhubaneswar Kalita, MP (RS), Chairman, Committee on Petitions in Rajya Sabha had also forwarded our representation to the Finance Minister asking him to look into our grievances.

Shri Ashwini Kumar, MP (LS), said in his letter to the Finance Minister that the books were pre-requisite for the development and growth of the nation particularly in the field of knowledge and literacy, and recommended remedial action. Smt. Jaya Bachchan, Member of Parliament (RS), acknowledging our representation sent us a copy of reply which she had received from the Hon’ble Finance Minister on our representation. Shri Satyanarayan Mohanty, Education Secretary, to whom we had sent representation on GST through NBT had also forwarded the same with his recommendation to Shri Shaktikanta Das, Revenue Secretary, to keep the books in the negative list of GST.

The Federation had sent a Memorandum to Ministry of HRD for the organization of New Delhi World Book Fair biennially instead of annually The National Book Trust, an autonomous body of the Ministry of Human Resource Development, entrusted with the task of spreading literacy and book culture has been organizing New Delhi World Book Fair since 1972. Earlier, this nine day event was held once in two years but, since 2013 it is being held annually. Since it is a prestigious national, international event, it is organized on a massive scale, and the expenditure and time incurred by NBT is also quite enormous. There is also another Book Fair, not of the scale as NBT’s World Book Fair, organized by India Trade Promotion Organisation in collaboration with the Federation of Indian Publishers every year since 1995 in New Delhi only and at the same place in Pragati Maidan.

Both these Fairs are major events for the Indian publishing industry, but sustaining them effectively every year is becoming quite difficult for the publishing industry to manage. International publishers, too, find it difficult to devote their full energy every year for nine days for the New Delhi World Book Fair as nowhere in the world, International book fairs are held for nine days. It is submitted that, to keep the interest of all the stake holders intact,

(a) NBT be asked to switch over to holding its New Delhi World Book Fair biennially instead of annually as was being done earlier;

(b) On every alternate year NBT be asked to hold National Book Fair on sufficient large scale in any of the major cities of India by rotation so that book culture is promoted all over India;

Moreover, National Book Fair would be beneficial for the Indian language publishers too, as they would be able to showcase their publications effectively in major cities of India; and for NBT also, more resources and time would be at its disposal to perform more activities for book promotion and Copyright awareness.

ISBN Number
The Federation of Indian Publishers received numerous complaints from the member-publishers across the country that they had been experiencing insurmountable difficulties in getting ISBN Number from the Copyright Division of the Ministry of Human Resource Development. They informed us that they had been put off on one pretext or the other. They had also been asked to deliver them a copy of the new published book for each ISBN number. Shri N.E. Manohar, Managing Partner, Poorna Publications, Kerala also complained to Raja Rammohun Roy Library Foundation and a copy endorsed to us that they had been experiencing difficulty in getting ISBN Number.

The Federation of Indian Publishers sent a Memorandum to the Ministry of Human Resource Developmednt and urged them to issue ISBN numbers to publishers without hassle after they had submitted documents as mentioned in the application form. We also informed the Ministry that our publishers are stuck up with print ready manuscripts and were handicapped to order printing new books. A delegation of some senior members had a meeting with Shri Shashi Prakash Goyal, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Human Resource Development on 4 February 2016 and informed about the difficulties experienced by our member-publishers for non-issuance of ISBN Number. At our strenuous efforts and initiative, the Ministry took expeditious steps and ISBN portal was launched by Smt. Smriti Zubin Irani, Hon’ble Minister of Human Resource Development on 7 April 2016 for online issuance of ISBN numbers through internet.

Memorandum to Post Office
The Federation of Indian Publishers received numerous complaints from member-publishers against local post offices about the non-delivery of book packets in time and other related issues. A delegation of senior members of the Federation had a meeting with Shri Abhishek Singh, Director, Postal Services and submitted him representation for redressal of the following issues/problems faced by the publishing industry:

(a) Delayed delivery of registered Book post packets and practically non existent tracking mechanisms.
(b) Insistence by local post office for keeping one side of the Book Post packet open with the result books get spoiled in transit.
(c) Refusal to allow educational CDs which are bundled with the book in the book Post packets.
(d) Insistence by the local post offices to cover the book parcels by cloth (Registered but not Insured) compulsorily.
(e) Difference in calculation of charges as per the standards of the Department of Posts and actual calculation by the staff, while posting letters for foreign countries.
(f) Non issuance of an export certificate (PP form) towards the Registered airmail packets sent overseas through Postal Department. Required for submission to the RBI for cross matching the payment received against these registered airmail packets.

Suggestions for the improvement of academic standard of Higher Education in colleges and universities of India – Memorandum submitted to the Government of India
It is a matter of great satisfaction that the Ministry of Human Resource Development (Government of India) and University Grants Commission are framing policies to improve the academic standard of University Education in India. In the last few years college and university teachers, authors and publishers have felt that the tendency of reading textbooks is going down miserably amongst college and university students. We are afraid, if this tendency is not checked, than very large number of students will be passing the examinations without having any knowledge of the subject and shall be unfit for white collar jobs. It has been observed that instead of reading textbooks, majority of the students prefer to study short notes/ guess papers for the preparation of their examinations.

Some of the suggestions are being mentioned below which we hope may prove useful for the improvement of the overall academic and teaching environment in large number of colleges & universities:

1. Academic session should commence positively by 1st week of August in all the colleges and universities, so that there are more teaching days. It has been noticed that in some universities the session starts as late as October. Even in the month of October/November, due to Dusshera and Diwali holidays, colleges are closed almost for 20-30 days.

2. Last date of admission in colleges & universities should not exceed beyond 1st August. It is suggested that university may declare only 3 merit lists with a gap of 10 days each and after that the colleges may be asked to fill the remaining seats with their own merit criteria.

3. All the results of the university examinations should be declared by 30th June positively, this is only possible when all annual examinations are over by 15th of May.

4. A minimum attendance of 60% should be compulsory for all the students. If needed, surprise inspection in the classrooms may be done by an empowered team of retired college principals & teachers.

5. Quality of education should not suffer for the sake of quantity. A minimum criteria for the admissions in undergraduate courses especially in Science faculty is very much needed.

6. In all the degree and postgraduate colleges weightage of internal assessment should also be given at the time of final examination. This will motivate the students for regular attendance in class and shall go for thorough studies.

7. The question papers should be framed in such a way that the students be required to attend the classes regularly and shall have to study the complete course.

Administrative Measures etc.

8. At present, there are large vacancies of teachers in colleges, which badly affect the teaching work. The vacancies of teachers in colleges should also be filled on priority and it is to ensure that in the appointment of college teachers, there are no political or otherwise pressures on the selection committee.

9. To ensure the teacher’s responsibility towards the teaching work, ACR (Annual Confidential Report) of the college teachers may be written by the Principal (in consultation with the respective head of the department); ACR of the Principals may be written by the Vice- Chancellor of the affiliating university.

10. In Government aided colleges the Government may also consider the transfer system within the state, particularly of those teachers who are not serious to their duty and are not taking regular classes.

11. To promote Indian authorship, nearly 80% library book- purchase grants should be utilized for the purchase of text-books (soft bound editions) written by Indian authors. This will encourage Indian authorship and shall benefit larger number of U-G and P-G level students. Library grants for purchase of books should be increased on the basis of enrolment of students.

The 23rd World Book Fair was held from 9-17 January 2016. The Fair was inaugurated by Smt. Smriti Zubin Irani, Hon’ble Minister of Human Resource Development. China was the Guest of Honour Country at the Fair. Various activities were organised during the New Delhi World Book Fair. The most important activities were Literary programme and Author’s Talk by Sahitya Akademi with the China National Publication Import & Export Corporation. Dr. Ashok Gupta, President participated in both these activities.

FIP TO HOST IPA CONGRESS 2018 IN NEW DELHI
The Federation of Indian Publishers has been honoured by the International Publishers Association, Geneva, to host the 32nd IPA Congress in New Delhi in 2018. The credit for this goes to the strenuous efforts and initiatives of the Federation. Earlier, we had hosted the 24th IPA Congress in New Delhi in 1992. IPA is an association of national, regional and specialist Publishers Association. Its membership comprises organizations from countries in Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe and the America. Based in Geneva, Switzerland. IPA represents the interests of the publishing industry in International fora and wherever publisher’s interests are at stake. During the IPA Congress, we are expecting about 500 delegates from abroad and 250 from India. During the IPA Congress in New Delhi some of the important issues concerning the publishing industry would focus on Copyrights and Piracy, Freedom to Publish, Educational Publishing, STM publishing and impact of innovation and Technology on publishing. In this connection, a Committee of very senior and capable members will be formed who would chalk out the strategies and put all out efforts to make the Congress a grand success and memorable to national and international delegates.

INTERNATIONAL BOOK FAIRS

The IPA General Assembly Meeting was held at Frankfurt on 9 October 2014 during the Frankfurt Book Fair. During the General Assembly meeting, elections for the post of President, Vice-President and five Executive Directors were held. Mr. Richard Charkin was unanimously elected as President of IPA for the years 2015-2016. There were two contestants for the post of Vice-President. They were Mr. Trasvin Jittidecharak from Thailand and Mr. Michiel Kolman from Netherlands. Following the secret casting of votes as per IPA Statute, Mr. Michiel Kolman was elected Vice President of IPA for the years 2015-16. There were five contestants for the post of Executive Committee Members. Mr. Asoke K. Ghosh who is very respected name in the International Publishing arena, was re-elected for the post of Executive Committee Member for two years. The FIP congratulates Mr. Ghosh for keeping the Indian Flag high at IPA, for last several decades.

FIP’s Participation in Frankfurt Book Fair 2014 (Over 7000 exhibitors, 2,70,000 visitors and 9,000 journalists attended the mega event of the Publishing Industry)
The Frankfurt Book Fair was organized from 8-12 October 2014 at Frankfurt. Like every year, the Federation of Indian Publishers organized a Reception-Dinner on 9 October 2014 at Hotel InterContinental, Frankfurt. Important dignitaries from IPA, CLA, CGI Frankfurt and Indian Publishers participating in the Frankfurt Book Fair attended the Reception-Dinner. The Reception-Dinner was well attended. 34 Indian publishers including 10 from CAPEXIL participated in the Frankfurt Book Fair and displayed more than 300 titles. A large number of visitors including Indians settled at Frankfurt visited the India Pavilion. Important dignitaries who visited the Indian pavilions were Mr. Kenneth Qick, Deputy Director, National Book Development Council, Singapore, Mr. Mohan Kumar from Sharjah International Book Fair Authority, UAE, Mr. Kaoru Iwafa, Tokyo International Book Fair, Mr. Osman Gani, President, Publishers Association, Bangladesh and Shri Aniruddha Das, Vice Consul, CGI, India. A large number of authors from India also attended the Fair which brought the taste of Indian writing to the world. This year, the National Book Trust, India, had also participated alongwith other important Government organizations i.e. Sahitya Akademi, National School of Drama and Publications Division. Mr. Raveesh Kumar, Consul General of India at Frankfurt, informed NBT that CGI would support NBT India if they represented India in a big way in future editions along with other important institutions in the Government and private publishing houses in India.

Shri R.C. Govil thanked all the participants of the Frankfurt Book Fair and specially thanked Shri Dinesh Goyal who contributed a large sum for the contributory Reception-Dinner. This Reception-Dinne is being organized by the Federation for many years to highlight the achievements made by the printing and the publishing industry in India. Shri Govil informed that very fruitful discussions were held between the Indian and foreign publishers during the Frankfurt Book Fair and the outcome will be known shortly. He requested all the members present to take part in the Book Fair. IPA General Assembly meetings held at Frankfurt during the Frankfurt Book Fair 2015 The President informed that he along with Shri Asoke K. Ghosh who is also E.C. Members of IPA participated in the IPA meeting. 54 countries participated in the meeting and the main agenda was the membership of China in the IPA. Most of the countries were in favour of China and voted accordingly and China was elected to the Board by a huge margin. Still some countries are opposing the participation of China into world body. The meeting was well attended and informative. Participation of FIP in the WIPO Seminar on “Accessible Publishing in India (publishing for persons with print disability) with particular reference ratification of the Marrakesh VIP Treaty The President, Dr. Ashok Gupta, participated in the WIPO Seminar on ‘Accessible Publishing in India (publishing for persons with print disability) held in Geneva on 28 April 2014. He made a presentation on the issue of print disability in India and spoke from the Indian publishers perspective on the implementation of the Marrakesh Treaty. Dr. Ashok Gupta informed although the Marrakesh VIP Treaty was signed by 51 countries on 28 June 2013 but India was the first country to ratify the Marrakesh Treaty to facilitate access the published works for persons who are blind, visually impaired or otherwise print disabled (MVT).

Dr. Gupta said the Marrakesh Treaty would meet the long pending demand of the VIP community, particularly in India, where the maximum number of visually impaired people lived and only negligible bodies of works were available to them. He said it was a balanced Treaty which had taken care of the interests of all the stakeholders in a reasonable manner. The member countries would now be required to adopt certain provisions in their national laws under limitations and exceptions to the rights of copyright holders to permit the reproduction, distribution and making available of published works in special formats which would make it easier for the VIP community to access them. For cross border exchange of works in accessible formats through agencies that serve the VIP community, this Treaty would go a long way in harmonizing limitations and exceptions so that they could operate freely.

Meeting with Chinese Delegation
The National Book Trust, India had invited Dr. Ashok Gupta, President, FIP, at their office for a meeting with Chinese delegation on 10 March 2016. During the course of discussion, they expressed their desire that a 10-member delegation should visit Beijing for detailed discussion and cooperation between the Chinese and Indian publishing Industry. After their departure, Dr. Ashok Gupta requested the Chairman, NBT that they should take a delegation to Beijing. Director, China Press and Publication, Beijing after reaching China, exchanged mails with President, FIP and invited him to visit Beijing with a 10- member delegation sometime in November 2016.

Guidelines for Central Selection of Books
Raja Rammohun Roy Library Foundation under the Chairmanship of Shri B.K. Sharma organized a meeting in the Sahitya Akademi office in New Delhi on 26 October 2015 to discuss guidelines for the Central Selection of Books and interact with the representation of the publishers. Dr. Ashok Gupta, President, alongwith senior members of the Federation participated in the meeting. Dr. Ashok Gupta apprised about the suggestions to be incorporated in the revised guidelines for the selection of books. The Federation had sent the following suggestions to Raja Rammohun Roy Library Foundation for the selection of books to be purchased by them.

(a) The books having ISBN Number be only procured.
(b) The publisher should have a PAN Number.
(c) The books already submitted to the four National Libraries be only considered.
(d) 3-4 times in a year books should be purchased as it is very difficult for the Selection Committee to select books out of about 15,000– 20,000 books in one seating.
(e) A Jury of the eminent authors, administrators, librarians be constituted to select the books subjectwise for recommendations.
(f) Books received at the RRRLF should also be acknowledged as publishers are always in doubt whether their books were shown to the Selection Committee.

Publicon 2015: The Publishing Ecosystem
The Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) invited Dr. Ashok Gupta, President, FIP, as one of the speakers at PUBLICON 2015 for the session “Issues of Piracy and infringement of Copyright in Publishing.” Dr. Ashok Gupta in his address said that the Piracy and infringement and copyright in publishing were global problems and required collective steps at all level to eradicate it. Dr. Ashok Gupta said Government of India had formulated Copyright Law but it was not enforced strictly. He further added due to lack of awareness amongst the masses across the country, it is not possible for the government to strictly enforce the Copyright Law. Dr. Ashok Gupta mooted the idea that it is the need of the honour that a chapter on Copyright issues should be inserted in the school textbooks to create awareness and respearly age.

Seminar on Managing Copyright in Publishing: The need for Awareness and Outreach
FICCI invited FIP to participate in a Seminar on “Managing Copyright in Publishing: The Need for Awareness and Outreach” on 31 March 2016. Dr. Ashok Gupta, President represented FIP at the Seminar. In his brief address, Dr. Gupta said that the book publishing had been indispensable to education and knowledge of society. However, it is badly affected by piracy and infringement of copyright. Dr. Ashok Gupta suggested that it would be imperative that a high level symposium and seminar should be organized to create awareness and importance of copyright for the creative industry and dissemination of knowledge to the general public. Dr. Ashok Gupta also suggested that we should involve Secretary (Education), Ministry of Human Resource Development and Director, NCERT in this sacred issue to create awareness across the country and eliminate piracy for the benefit of publishers as well as students and readers. The Seminar had an exclusive awareness and outreach of copyright with regard to the purchase of books and content.

10th World Hindi Conference held from 10-12 September 2015 in Bhopal This was for the first time in the history of the Federation of Indian 33
Publishers, an official invitation was received from the Ministry of External Affairs to participate and represent the Indian publishing industry in the 10th World Hindi Conference held in Bhopal on 10-12 September 2015. Dr. Ashok Gupta participated as one of the speakers from the FIP. Shri Baldeo Bhai Sharma, Chairman, NBT, was the moderator of the Session to discuss the problems faced by publishers relating to Hindi at national and internatgional level and how to address them. Shri Sharma said simply worrying will not resolve our problems and we have to find out way-out as to how these problems are addressed, and it would be possible by way of consultation with all stakeholders and media to make Hindi rich and progressive at all levels. In his address, Dr. Ashok Gupta said that with the changing scenario, the publishing industry had been confronted with insurmountable problems. He said there are about twenty thousand publishers in India and one lakh books are published every year – 25% in English and 20% in Hindi, 7.8% in Tamil and 5.6% in Bengali. He further said total value of book industry is 25,000 crores whereas we export books about 2000 crores every year. If we compare those figures with other countries, we are far behind. For promotion of Hindi in today’s technological times, it is most important that we should start using Hindi language in our day-to-day usage of computers. For publishing industry, adoption of UNICODE Hindi fonts for developing Hindi books should be nurtured by various Government agencies.

New Education Policy
The Ministry of Human Resource Development has formed a Committee on ‘New Education Policy’ under the Chairmanship of Shri T.S.R. Subramanian, former Cabinet Secretary. The objective of this Committee is to formulate a New Education Policy for the country through an inclusive, participatory and holistic approach. The National Policy on Education was framed in 1986 and modified in 1992. Since then several changes have taken place that calls for a revision of the Policy. The Government of India would like to bring out a National Education Policy to meet the changing dynamics of the population’s requirement with regards to quality education, innovation and research, aiming to make India a knowledge superpower by equipping its students with the necessary skills and knowledge and to eliminate the shortage of manpower in science, technology, academics and industry. For this purpose, 33 themes have been identified for discussions under this Group. The themes are divided separately for the School Education
(13 themes) and Higher Education (20 themes) sectors. The group consists of Tasks and Discussions. Tasks are both online and on-ground. Discussions enable participants to share their thoughts and ideas. The Committee has invited suggestions from General Public, Panchayats, Blocks, Districts & States. FIP was not invited to send suggestions on behalf of the publishing industry. However, it had written to the Ministry of HRD to take FIP on Board as one of the members of the Committee to represent the publishing industry.

The IRRO has been playing a very useful and effective role in the field of licensing of copyrighted published works for reproduction. The IRRO has already signed Bilateral Agreement with Copyright Licensing Agency of UK and 24 RROs of other countries.
SEMINAR ON ‘NEWER DEVELOPMENTS IN LICENSING OF COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL’ HELD ON 16 FEBRUARY 2015 AT INDIA HABITAT CENTRE, NEW DELHI
The Indian Reprographic Rights Organisation (IRRO) organized a high level International Seminar on ‘Newer Developments in Licensing of Copyrighted Material’ on 16 February 2015 at India Habitat Centre, New Delhi. Experts on various aspects of copyright and reprography, leading authors, publishers, corporate institutions and legal luminaries, especially involved with the Intellectual Property Rights, both from India and foreign countries, including UK and the International Federation of Reproduction Rights Organisations (IFRRO), participated in the Seminar. The basic purpose of organizing this Seminar was to update the audience about the changes in the scenario due to the ongoing efforts by IRRO and other like-minded organisations and devise a better way to optimize the work IRRO seeks to achieve. The underlying objective of this Seminar was also to create awareness about the ill effects of photocopying and its effect not only on creativity, but also the authors and publishers who were not getting sufficiently compensated for their rights. Mr. A. Sethumadhavan, Chairman, National Book Trust, was the Chief Guest and Ms. Aparna Sharma, Director & Registrar, Copyright Office, Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India was the Guest of Honour. The keynote address was delivered by Mr. Pravin Anand, eminent IPR Advocate.

Mr. Sudhir Malhotra, Chairman, IRRO, in his welcome address, outlined the work IRRO would able to achieve in the recent times. This included getting re-registered with the Copyright Office of the HRD Ministry and its efforts in creating awareness with the rights-owners and all the interested parties. He also informed that IRRO along with Federation of Indian Publishers and associated bodies have been a part of Copyright Enforcement Advisory Committee (CEAC). This committee along with the HRD Ministry is collaborating to devise the National IPR Policy keeping in mind the best interests of the rights-owners. He also opined that although the HRD Ministry has been understanding and cooperative, IRRO would need more support from Government in order to protect the rights-owners. In his keynote address, Mr. Pravin Anand highlighted the updates with regard to the IPR scenario in India vis-à-vis other countries and mentioning the advancement made by Courts in Delhi. He drew comparisons between some of the recent decisions of the Indian Courts with that of some foreign decisions. He emphasized that there was a need to make special efforts and there was need for stricter scrutiny and need to punish the culprits harder to set examples. His speech set the mood of the seminar in line with the purpose of the Seminar.

The Guest of Honour, Ms. Aparna Sharma, in her inaugural address, appreciated the need and importance of IRRO and congratulated on the work done and its achievements in the recent past as highlighted by Mr. Sudhir Malhotra. She further urged IRRO to involve more copyright- owners and establish a system which is transparent and convenient, so as to say that a right-owner and a user of the right-owner’s work are both aware of each other’s actions and the user knows that for his actions as the user, the right-owner is being compensated, as his is right. Moreover, she opined that for its smooth functioning it is extremely necessary for IRRO to forge strong relationships with the users. The Chief Guest, Mr. A. Sethumadhavan, in his address, while thanking IRRO for organizing this Seminar emphasized on the rights and privileges of the authors and publishers. He expressed his concern on the changing relationships between authors and publishers and the rise in need of either party to safeguard their rights as both are stakeholders now. With regards to the role of IRRO, he mentioned that although the law may be sufficient but its better and stricter implementation is required for which the government will have to play a large role to safeguard the rights of the rights-owners. Lastly, he highlighted that the role of IRRO in creating awareness was very crucial and it should organize a series of seminars, all over India, to educate more people, be it authors, publishers and users.

Prominent among the speakers, both international and national, were Mr. Olav Stokkmo, Chief Executive, International Federation of Reproduction Rights Organisations (IFRRO), Ms. Emma House, Director, Publisher Relations, Publishers Association of UK, Dr. Lisa P. Lukose, Associate Professor, University School of Law and Legal Studies (USLLS), Indraprastha University, Delhi, Mr. Jagdish Sagar, Advocate and Mr. Arpan Banerjee, Assistant Professor, Jindal Global Law School, Sonipat, Haryana. Presentations, including power-point presentations, were made on subjects relating to (i) International Practices in Reprography; (ii) About IRRO and its activities: Legal Framework of Reprography in India; (iii) U.K’s experience with Corporate Licensing; (iv) Copyright and the Education Sector, and (v) Making Digital India: Issues and rights of the rights-owners. All the Sessions were extremely insightful and the discussions were very lively. The presentations made by all the eminent speakers resulted in very good interaction and discussions in the form of question-answer sessions from the enlightened gathering cleared every query that anyone had.

The Seminar created an ambience in demonstrating the commitment by all the publishing industry stakeholders and the authors of the need to further strengthen the implementation of copyright and reprography. With speakers from universities and audience from the corporate sector, the need and role of IRRO was duly appreciated and a collective pledge was adhered to, in order to strength the affairs of IRRO and help IRRO in achieving the goals it has set out to. In his concluding remarks, Mr. Asoke K. Ghosh, former Chairman, IRRO, voiced the concern that seemed to be the intention of organizing this seminar. He articulated using illustrations from a couple of presentations that were previously made and gave his analysis on them. Further, he appreciated the enthusiasm and interest shown by the audience. He opined that if more and more people became aware of these issues and take note of the rights of the rights-owners, while understanding the economic loss suffered by the industry, by certain illegal activities, they would understand the role and function of IRRO in safeguarding all that and support it.

Proposing a vote of thanks, Mr. Ashok Gupta, Secretary General, IRRO, thanked all the learned speakers, both foreign and Indian, for their very interesting and excellent presentations as well as the large number of participants for not only making the Seminar a great success but also actively participating in the discussions that followed the various sessions. Lastly, he thanked IRRO for organizing such an informative seminar in the process of creating awareness and reiterated that the issues highlighted demanded the attention of all the sections of the Society.

Writ Petition filed by FIP and IRRO in the Delhi High Court seeking to challenge the Constitutional vires of certain provisions of the Copyright Rules 2013 – Further Development.

The Copyright Rules 2013 which came into effect on 14 March 2013 and the Copyright Act 1957, as amended by the Copyright (Amendment) Act 2012, have certain impugned provisions which unjustifiably restrict and interfere with the publishers’ exercise of their fundamental right to carry on their business of book publication. FIP and IRRO had requested Shri Jagdish Sagar, Advocate, Delhi High Court, to file a writ petition in the Delhi High Court seeking to challenge the Constitutional vires of certain impugned provisions in the new Copyright Rules which unjustifiably restrict and interfere with the publishers’ exercise of their fundamental right to carry on their business of book publication. Accordingly, the writ petition had been filed by Shri Jagdish Sagar on 13 May 2013. In the meanwhile, the Authors Guild of India had sent a Note suggesting certain changes to be made in the writ petition. This matter was also discussed in the meeting of the Governing Body of IRRO held on 14 June 2013 and it has been decided that the Note received from the Authors Guild of India to be sent to Shri Jagdish Sagar, Advocate, and asked him to file a Revised Petition adding that IRRO agrees to give equal representation to authors and publishers in the Governing Body of the IRRO. The Writ Petition came up at the Delhi High Court before Justice B.D. Ahmad on 22 August 2013. Our application for amendment of the Petition was allowed and we were also allowed to withdraw our earlier application. Hon’ble Justice asked the respondent (Union of India) to file their reply within two weeks. More than two-and-a-half years have elapsed, the matter is still hanging fire.

COPYRIGHT COUNCIL
The Copyright Council of the Federation remained active under the Chairmanship of Shri Sudhir Malhotra. Queries from publishers, both FIP members and non-members, on matters concerning copyright infringement and the problems of piracy were promptly taken care of and necessary advice given to them.

Publicon 2015: The Publishing Ecosystem
The Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) invited Dr. Ashok Gupta, President, FIP, as one of the speakers at PUBLICON 2015 for the session “Issues of Piracy and infringement of Copyright in Publishing.” Dr. Ashok Gupta in his address said that the Piracy and infringement and copyright in publishing were global problems and required collective steps at all level to eradicate it. Dr. Ashok Gupta said Government of India had formulated Copyright Law but it was not enforced strictly. He further added due to lack of awareness amongst the masses across the country, it is not possible for the government to strictly enforce the Copyright Law. Dr. Ashok Gupta mooted the idea that it is the need of the honour that a chapter on Copyright issues should be inserted in the school textbooks to create awareness and respearly age.

Seminar on Managing Copyright in Publishing: The need for Awareness and Outreach
FICCI invited FIP to participate in a Seminar on “Managing Copyright in Publishing: The Need for Awareness and Outreach” on 31 March 2016. Dr. Ashok Gupta, President represented FIP at the Seminar. In his brief address, Dr. Gupta said that the book publishing had been indispensable to education and knowledge of society. However, it is badly affected by piracy and infringement of copyright. Dr. Ashok Gupta suggested that it would be imperative that a high level symposium and seminar should be organized to create awareness and importance of copyright for the creative industry and dissemination of knowledge to the general public. Dr. Ashok Gupta also suggested that we should involve Secretary (Education), Ministry of Human Resource Development and Director, NCERT in this sacred issue to create awareness across the country and eliminate piracy for the benefit of publishers as well as students and readers. The Seminar had an exclusive awareness and outreach of copyright with regard to the purchase of books and content.

10th World Hindi Conference held from 10-12 September 2015 in Bhopal This was for the first time in the history of the Federation of Indian 33
Publishers, an official invitation was received from the Ministry of External Affairs to participate and represent the Indian publishing industry in the 10th World Hindi Conference held in Bhopal on 10-12 September 2015. Dr. Ashok Gupta participated as one of the speakers from the FIP. Shri Baldeo Bhai Sharma, Chairman, NBT, was the moderator of the Session to discuss the problems faced by publishers relating to Hindi at national and internatgional level and how to address them. Shri Sharma said simply worrying will not resolve our problems and we have to find out way-out as to how these problems are addressed, and it would be possible by way of consultation with all stakeholders and media to make Hindi rich and progressive at all levels. In his address, Dr. Ashok Gupta said that with the changing scenario, the publishing industry had been confronted with insurmountable problems. He said there are about twenty thousand publishers in India and one lakh books are published every year – 25% in English and 20% in Hindi, 7.8% in Tamil and 5.6% in Bengali. He further said total value of book industry is 25,000 crores whereas we export books about 2000 crores every year. If we compare those figures with other countries, we are far behind. For promotion of Hindi in today’s technological times, it is most important that we should start using Hindi language in our day-to-day usage of computers. For publishing industry, adoption of UNICODE Hindi fonts for developing Hindi books should be nurtured by various Government agencies.

New Education Policy
The Ministry of Human Resource Development has formed a Committee on ‘New Education Policy’ under the Chairmanship of Shri T.S.R. Subramanian, former Cabinet Secretary. The objective of this Committee is to formulate a New Education Policy for the country through an inclusive, participatory and holistic approach. The National Policy on Education was framed in 1986 and modified in 1992. Since then several changes have taken place that calls for a revision of the Policy. The Government of India would like to bring out a National Education Policy to meet the changing dynamics of the population’s requirement with regards to quality education, innovation and research, aiming to make India a knowledge superpower by equipping its students with the necessary skills and knowledge and to eliminate the shortage of manpower in science, technology, academics and industry. For this purpose, 33 themes have been identified for discussions under this Group. The themes are divided separately for the School Education
(13 themes) and Higher Education (20 themes) sectors. The group consists of Tasks and Discussions. Tasks are both online and on-ground. Discussions enable participants to share their thoughts and ideas. The Committee has invited suggestions from General Public, Panchayats, Blocks, Districts & States. FIP was not invited to send suggestions on behalf of the publishing industry. However, it had written to the Ministry of HRD to take FIP on Board as one of the members of the Committee to represent the publishing industry.

The IRRO has been playing a very useful and effective role in the field of licensing of copyrighted published works for reproduction. The IRRO has already signed Bilateral Agreement with Copyright Licensing Agency of UK and 24 RROs of other countries.
SEMINAR ON ‘NEWER DEVELOPMENTS IN LICENSING OF COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL’ HELD ON 16 FEBRUARY 2015 AT INDIA HABITAT CENTRE, NEW DELHI
The Indian Reprographic Rights Organisation (IRRO) organized a high level International Seminar on ‘Newer Developments in Licensing of Copyrighted Material’ on 16 February 2015 at India Habitat Centre, New Delhi. Experts on various aspects of copyright and reprography, leading authors, publishers, corporate institutions and legal luminaries, especially involved with the Intellectual Property Rights, both from India and foreign countries, including UK and the International Federation of Reproduction Rights Organisations (IFRRO), participated in the Seminar. The basic purpose of organizing this Seminar was to update the audience about the changes in the scenario due to the ongoing efforts by IRRO and other like-minded organisations and devise a better way to optimize the work IRRO seeks to achieve. The underlying objective of this Seminar was also to create awareness about the ill effects of photocopying and its effect not only on creativity, but also the authors and publishers who were not getting sufficiently compensated for their rights. Mr. A. Sethumadhavan, Chairman, National Book Trust, was the Chief Guest and Ms. Aparna Sharma, Director & Registrar, Copyright Office, Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India was the Guest of Honour. The keynote address was delivered by Mr. Pravin Anand, eminent IPR Advocate.

Mr. Sudhir Malhotra, Chairman, IRRO, in his welcome address, outlined the work IRRO would able to achieve in the recent times. This included getting re-registered with the Copyright Office of the HRD Ministry and its efforts in creating awareness with the rights-owners and all the interested parties. He also informed that IRRO along with Federation of Indian Publishers and associated bodies have been a part of Copyright Enforcement Advisory Committee (CEAC). This committee along with the HRD Ministry is collaborating to devise the National IPR Policy keeping in mind the best interests of the rights-owners. He also opined that although the HRD Ministry has been understanding and cooperative, IRRO would need more support from Government in order to protect the rights-owners. In his keynote address, Mr. Pravin Anand highlighted the updates with regard to the IPR scenario in India vis-à-vis other countries and mentioning the advancement made by Courts in Delhi. He drew comparisons between some of the recent decisions of the Indian Courts with that of some foreign decisions. He emphasized that there was a need to make special efforts and there was need for stricter scrutiny and need to punish the culprits harder to set examples. His speech set the mood of the seminar in line with the purpose of the Seminar.

The Guest of Honour, Ms. Aparna Sharma, in her inaugural address, appreciated the need and importance of IRRO and congratulated on the work done and its achievements in the recent past as highlighted by Mr. Sudhir Malhotra. She further urged IRRO to involve more copyright- owners and establish a system which is transparent and convenient, so as to say that a right-owner and a user of the right-owner’s work are both aware of each other’s actions and the user knows that for his actions as the user, the right-owner is being compensated, as his is right. Moreover, she opined that for its smooth functioning it is extremely necessary for IRRO to forge strong relationships with the users. The Chief Guest, Mr. A. Sethumadhavan, in his address, while thanking IRRO for organizing this Seminar emphasized on the rights and privileges of the authors and publishers. He expressed his concern on the changing relationships between authors and publishers and the rise in need of either party to safeguard their rights as both are stakeholders now. With regards to the role of IRRO, he mentioned that although the law may be sufficient but its better and stricter implementation is required for which the government will have to play a large role to safeguard the rights of the rights-owners. Lastly, he highlighted that the role of IRRO in creating awareness was very crucial and it should organize a series of seminars, all over India, to educate more people, be it authors, publishers and users.

Prominent among the speakers, both international and national, were Mr. Olav Stokkmo, Chief Executive, International Federation of Reproduction Rights Organisations (IFRRO), Ms. Emma House, Director, Publisher Relations, Publishers Association of UK, Dr. Lisa P. Lukose, Associate Professor, University School of Law and Legal Studies (USLLS), Indraprastha University, Delhi, Mr. Jagdish Sagar, Advocate and Mr. Arpan Banerjee, Assistant Professor, Jindal Global Law School, Sonipat, Haryana. Presentations, including power-point presentations, were made on subjects relating to (i) International Practices in Reprography; (ii) About IRRO and its activities: Legal Framework of Reprography in India; (iii) U.K’s experience with Corporate Licensing; (iv) Copyright and the Education Sector, and (v) Making Digital India: Issues and rights of the rights-owners. All the Sessions were extremely insightful and the discussions were very lively. The presentations made by all the eminent speakers resulted in very good interaction and discussions in the form of question-answer sessions from the enlightened gathering cleared every query that anyone had.

The Seminar created an ambience in demonstrating the commitment by all the publishing industry stakeholders and the authors of the need to further strengthen the implementation of copyright and reprography. With speakers from universities and audience from the corporate sector, the need and role of IRRO was duly appreciated and a collective pledge was adhered to, in order to strength the affairs of IRRO and help IRRO in achieving the goals it has set out to. In his concluding remarks, Mr. Asoke K. Ghosh, former Chairman, IRRO, voiced the concern that seemed to be the intention of organizing this seminar. He articulated using illustrations from a couple of presentations that were previously made and gave his analysis on them. Further, he appreciated the enthusiasm and interest shown by the audience. He opined that if more and more people became aware of these issues and take note of the rights of the rights-owners, while understanding the economic loss suffered by the industry, by certain illegal activities, they would understand the role and function of IRRO in safeguarding all that and support it.

Proposing a vote of thanks, Mr. Ashok Gupta, Secretary General, IRRO, thanked all the learned speakers, both foreign and Indian, for their very interesting and excellent presentations as well as the large number of participants for not only making the Seminar a great success but also actively participating in the discussions that followed the various sessions. Lastly, he thanked IRRO for organizing such an informative seminar in the process of creating awareness and reiterated that the issues highlighted demanded the attention of all the sections of the Society.

Writ Petition filed by FIP and IRRO in the Delhi High Court seeking to challenge the Constitutional vires of certain provisions of the Copyright Rules 2013 – Further Development.

The Copyright Rules 2013 which came into effect on 14 March 2013 and the Copyright Act 1957, as amended by the Copyright (Amendment) Act 2012, have certain impugned provisions which unjustifiably restrict and interfere with the publishers’ exercise of their fundamental right to carry on their business of book publication. FIP and IRRO had requested Shri Jagdish Sagar, Advocate, Delhi High Court, to file a writ petition in the Delhi High Court seeking to challenge the Constitutional vires of certain impugned provisions in the new Copyright Rules which unjustifiably restrict and interfere with the publishers’ exercise of their fundamental right to carry on their business of book publication. Accordingly, the writ petition had been filed by Shri Jagdish Sagar on 13 May 2013. In the meanwhile, the Authors Guild of India had sent a Note suggesting certain changes to be made in the writ petition. This matter was also discussed in the meeting of the Governing Body of IRRO held on 14 June 2013 and it has been decided that the Note received from the Authors Guild of India to be sent to Shri Jagdish Sagar, Advocate, and asked him to file a Revised Petition adding that IRRO agrees to give equal representation to authors and publishers in the Governing Body of the IRRO. The Writ Petition came up at the Delhi High Court before Justice B.D. Ahmad on 22 August 2013. Our application for amendment of the Petition was allowed and we were also allowed to withdraw our earlier application. Hon’ble Justice asked the respondent (Union of India) to file their reply within two weeks. More than two-and-a-half years have elapsed, the matter is still hanging fire.

COPYRIGHT COUNCIL
The Copyright Council of the Federation remained active under the Chairmanship of Shri Sudhir Malhotra. Queries from publishers, both FIP members and non-members, on matters concerning copyright infringement and the problems of piracy were promptly taken care of and necessary advice given to them.

Since 28 March 2014, the following 12 new members have been enrolled.

1. FULL MARKS PVT.LTD., NEW DELHI
2. GOYAL BOOKS OVERSEAS (P)LTD., NEW DELHI
3. BUKAHOLIC PUBLICATIONS PVT.LTD., DELHI
4. RACHNA SAGAR PVT.LTD., NEW DELHI
5. KRISHNA PRAKASHAN MEDIA PVT.LTD., MEERUT
6. CHITRA PRAKASHAN (I) PVT.LTD., MEERUT
7. SOUVENIR PUBLISHERS PVT.LTD., DELHI
8. PRINTS PUBLICATIONS PVT.LTD., NEW DELHI
9. ARIHANT PUBLICATIONS (I) LTD., MEERUT
10. VIDYA PRAKASHAN MANDIR LTD., MEERUT
11. VISHV BOOKS PRIVATE LIMITED, GHAZIABAD
12. SPEAKING TIGER PUBLISHING PVT.LTD., NEW DELHI

In addition, 12 Affiliated members have been enrolled, bringing the total number of affiliated members to 63. In the end, I would like to express my deep gratitude to Dr. Ashok Gupta, President, and all the other Office Bearers for their valuable support in the discharge of my duties. I would also like to express my sincere thanks to all the members of the Federation for their whole-hearted cooperation. I am grateful to all my senior colleagues in the FIP and all the past Presidents for giving their unsolicited support to further the cause of the publishing industry. I express my special gratitude to all the members of the Executive Committee who took keen interest in the working of the FIP and whose team spirit and hard work kept the FIP flag flying high. I also express my thanks to the Officers of the Ministries of Human Resource Development, Culture, Commerce, Finance, the India Trade Promotion Organisation, the National Book Trust and the Sahitya Akademi for their continued cooperation. Lastly, I would like to express my thanks to Shri M.L. Sehgal, Senior Executive, who was in the helm of affairs for his complete involvement in the working of the Federation and its various activities which kept the FIP Secretariat running smoothly. I would also like to thank all the staff members of the Federation Secretariat for their whole-hearted cooperation and assistance in the performance of my duties.

RAMESH K. MITTAL HONY. GENERAL SECRETARY

List of Office Bearers and Members of the Executive Committee during the year 2014-2015
Office Bearers

President Emeritus
Shri D.N. Malhotra
Executive Committee Members

1. Shri Asoke K. Ghosh
2. Shri Sudhir Malhotra
3. Shri Anand Bhushan
4. Shri Amar Nath Varma
5. Shri Raj Kumar
6. Shri N.K. Mehra
7. Shri Naveen Gupta
8. Shri Bikash De Niyogi
9. Shri Virender Kumar Arya
10. Shri Umesh Chand Aggarwal
11. Shri Narender Kumar Verma
12. Shri Himanshu Gupta
13. Ms. Monica Malhotra Kandhari