It is my proud privilege and great honour to extend to you all a hearty welcome to the 42nd Annual General Meeting of the Federation of Indian Publishers.
The Federation of Indian Publishers is the apex body of publishers of all Indian languages to which are federated the various language publishers associations. During the last forty-one years, the Federation has become the national representative body of the Indian book industry and is growing stronger and stronger day by day. Internationally also, the Federation has played an important role. India is considered and respected as a great publishing nation all over the world.
The great characteristic of the Federation is that it is a deliberative and consultative organization with the principal objective to strengthen and promote professional standards among our members and create a forum not only to discuss their problems but also to address them satisfactorily.
The Annual General Meeting is organized not only to choose new set up to marshal the affairs of the Federation and apprise members about the steps that had been taken during the year to excite enthusiasm besides being a platform to interact with old and new members and seek their valuable suggestions in order to take the Federation at greater heights.
The year under review has been a significant one in the history of Indian book publishing. FIP played an important role in the promotion of Indian book publishing industry by organising various book-related events and programmes for the professional growth of members. FIP also endeavoured to provide important commercial information to the members for their day-to-day business through its various circulars and book related tenders to make itself member-friendly.
The Federation, in collaboration with the India Trade Promotion Organisation, organised the 20th Delhi Book Fair from 23-31 August 2014 and the 21st Delhi Book Fair from 29th August to 6th September 2015 with tremendous success. The 20th Delhi Book Fair was inaugurated 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. The 21st Delhi Book 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 a part of its activities
during the Delhi Book Fair, the Federation organised a large number of Seminars, Symposiums, book releases, meet the author get-togethers and a host of cultural activities.
The Federation organised the 34th competition for Awards for Excellence in Book Production in respect of publications produced in India during 2013-2014. The 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 35th competition for Awards for Excellence in Book Production in respect of publications produced in India during 2014-2015 was organized by FIP on 4 September 2015. The Jury selected 108 titles of 56 publishers for Awards. Out of these, 38 titles have been selected for fist prize, 37 titles for second prize and 33 titles for Certificate of Merit. Shri Baldeo Bhai Sharma Ji, Chairman, National Book Trust, India, was the Chief Guest at an awards giving ceremony.
The Federation of Indian Publishers organized two National Convention of Indian Languages Publishers in 2014-2015 and one in 2015-16. 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.
The Federation had organized the second National Convention of Indian Languages Publishers in collaboration with Odisha Publishers & Booksellers Association on 7 & 8 February 2015 at Grand Residency, Badambari, Cuttack. More than 100 delegates from Odisha, West Bengal, Bihar, Manipur, Andhra Pradesh, Tamilnadu and New Delhi, participated in the Convention. The Convention was inaugurated by Shri Pitambar Mishra, President, Odisha Publishers & Booksellers Association.
During 2015-16, the Federation of Indian Publishers, in collaboration with Booksellers and Publishers Association of South India (BAPASI), also organized the National Convention of Indian Languages Publishers at Hotel Savera, Mapple Hall, Chennai on 2 May 2015. Dr. Ashok Gupta, President, FIP, inaugurated the Convention.
GST has been a burning topic for the publishing industry ever since the Ministry of Finance had issued two negative lists not including books, e-books, CD-ROMs in the negative lists. In this connection, the Federation had sent letters to the members of the 13th Finance Commission, Finance Minister, important Chief Secretaries of States and 680 Members of Parliament requesting them to send our representation
to Shri Arun Jaitley, Hon’ble Finance Minister with the request for the retention of books in the negative lists. A few MPs had acknowledged our representation.
The Federation had sent a Memorandum to the Ministry of HRD for the organization of New Delhi World Book Fair biennially instead of annually. The National Book Trust, India, an autonomous body of the Ministry of Human Resource Development had been organizing New Delhi World Book Fair once in two years since 1972. However, since 2013, it is being held annually. As a result, Delhi Book Fair organized annually by FIP has been adversely affected. In this connection, the Federation had sent representations to all concerned departments including Smt. Smriti Zubin Irani, Hon’ble Minister of HRD to direct NBT to switch over to holding New Delhi World Book Fair biennially instead of annually.
Some of our member-publishers across the country brought to our attention that they had not been getting ISBN Numbers from the Copyright Division of the Ministry of HRD. A delegation of senior members of the Federation had a meeting with Shri Shashi Prakash Goyal, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Human Resource Development. At our initiative, ISBN portal was launched in April 2016 and now one can get ISBN number online.
The Federation of Indian Publishers received numerous complaints 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 to him a representation for redressal.
The Federation of Indian Publishers had sent suggestions for the improvement of academic standard of higher education in colleges and universities of India to be incorporated in the policies to be framed by Ministry of HRD and the University Grants Commission.
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 year 2015- 16. There were five contestants for the post of Executive Committee Members. Mr. Asoke K. Ghosh was re-elected for the post of Executive Committee Member for two years.
The Federation of Indian Publishers has been honoured by International Publishers Association 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, the Federation had hosted the 24th IPA Congress in 1992.
The Frankfurt Book Fair was organized from 8-12 October 2014. 34 Indian publishers including 10 from CAPEXIL participated in the Frankfurt Book Fair 2014 and displayed more than 300 titles. 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.
The Federation of Indian Publishers organized Reception-Dinner on 9 October 2014 at Hotel InterContinental, Frankfurt. Important dignitaries from IPA, CLA, CGI Frankfurt and Indian publishers who had participated in the Frankfurt Book Fair, attended the Reception- Dinner. The Reception was well attended.
WIPO had invited the Federation of Indian Publishers to participate in the Seminar on Marrakesh Treaty to Facilitate Access to published works to visually impaired person & persons with print disability, held in Geneva on 28 April 2014. Dr. Ashok Gupta had participated in the Seminar and made a presentation on the issues of print disability in India.
Raja Rammohun Roy Library Foundation invited FIP to participate in a meeting organized in Sahitya Akademi on 26 October 2015 under the Chairmanship of Shri B.K. Sharma to revise the guidelines for the selection of books. The main objective behind this meeting was to take into account the publishers’ views to be incorporated in the guidelines. Dr. Ashok Gupta had participated in the meeting and submitted suggestions to be incorporated in the guidelines.
PUBLICON 2015 – The Publishing Eco System: FICCI had invited Dr. Ashok Gupta, President, FIP to be one of the speakers at PUBLICON 2015 for the session “Issues on Piracy and Infringement of Copyright in publishing.” In his address, Dr. Ashok Gupta said Piracy and counterfeit on books are global problems and require collective steps at all level to eradicate it. Dr. Ashok Gupta mooted the idea that it is the need of the hour that a chapter on copyright should be included in the school textbooks to create awareness and respect for copyright from early age.
The Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry
(FICCI) had invited FIP to participate in the Seminar on “Managing Copyright on Publishing: the Need for awareness and outreach” on 24 September 2015. Dr. Ashok Gupta participated in the Seminar. Dr. Ashok Gupta said the book publishing industry had been indispensable to education and knowledge of society.
For the first time in the history of the Federation of Indian Publishers, the Ministry of External Affairs invited Dr. Ashok Gupta as one of the speakers at the 10th Hindi Sammelan in Bhopal held from 10-12 September 2015.
Since March 2014, 11 meetings of the Executive Committee have been held.