Reading habits to be encouraged

By Our Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI, APRIL 23.

``Reading makes a man perfect and writing makes him exact'': That was Dr. Murli Manohar Joshi, Union Human Resources Development Minister, reflecting on the reading habit at a seminar organised by the National Book Trust (NBT) and the Federation of Indian Publishers on the occasion of World Copyright Day, here today.

Without any inhibition, Dr. Joshi said, ``Although I am an ardent reader, as of today I hardly get time to read, I am able to read only while traveling. And if it so happens that books take the electronic forms, I will be deprived of his pleasure too''.

Other dignitaries present on the occasion were Mr. M. K. Kaw, Secretary, Secondary and Higher Education, Ms. Krishna Sobti, Hindi author, Mr. D. N. Malhotra, doyen of the publishing industry, and Mr. S. Balwant, Federation of Indian Publishers President.

Mr. Kaw said the feel of a book, the joy of writing personal notes and referring back to these time and again establishes a personal relationship of an individual with the book.

In her keynote address, Ms. Sobti, said: ``To deprive any citizen of the privilege of reading and writing should be considered a moral crime.''

Mr. D. N. Malhotra, said that easy accessibility of books was an issue that needs to be addressed in a big way. ``One major hurdle is the postal rates. If these are made nominal, a lot of problems could be solved.''

Meanwhile, the Federation of Publishers and Booksellers Association of India in association with CAPEXIL, organised a workshop-cum-seminar on ``Export of Books''. Mr. S. C. Sethi, FPBAI President, said more attention should be paid to the export as there is an increasing demand in the overseas market.

Mr. Sukumar Das, Chairman of Books and Publications Panel of CAPEXIL, said technology should be used in a big way to bring Indian books to the forefront. He informed that 59 per cent of Indian export of books was going to the developed countries which was significant.

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