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.