Dharmendra Pradhan inaugurates New Delhi World Book Fair
13 February 2024: Union Minister of Education and Skill Development & Entrepreneurship, Dharmendra Pradhan inaugurated New Delhi World Book Fair at Bharat Mandapam, New Delhi recently. Ambassador of Saudi Arabia to India, Saleh bin Eid Al-Husseini; Minister of State for Education, Smt. Annpurna Devi; Secretary, Higher Education, Ministry of Education, Sanjay K. Murthy; Secretary, Department of School Education & Literacy, Sanjay Kumar; Chairman, National Book Trust, Prof. Milind Sudhakar Marathe; Director, National Book Trust, Yuvraj Malik and other dignitaries were also present at the event.
Inaugurating 52nd edition of the New Delhi World Book Fair Pradhan highlighted that this year’s theme of the fair ‘Multilingual India: A Living Tradition’ is celebrating India’s linguistic diversity and global literary traditions. He also said that the fair is a harmonious amalgamation of literature, diverse cultures artistic expressions and knowledge. Multilingualism is the core of our diversity and therefore, language and books are assets to realise the goal of Viksit Bharat by 2047, as envisioned by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Shri Pradhan added.
Speaking at the inaugural session, Saleh bin Eid Al-Husseini stressed the mutual commitment to deepen ties between the countries. He drew similarities between India’s Amrit Kaal and 2030 vision of Saudi Arabia as there is a shared commitment to a better future.
Dharmendra Pradhan launched the app of the National Digital Libraries for All, announced in Budget 2023-34. National e-library, is a first-of-its-kind digital library for accessing a variety of non-academic books for Children and Adolescents based on the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi’s vision statement, “When citizens read, the country leads.”
National e-library shall promote and foster a love for life-long reading habit among students and provide diverse literature options including various genres such as fiction, non-fiction, poetry, and biographies etc., which will cater to different reading preferences and help students explore diverse types of literature in the language of their own choice. It will also, encourage critical thinking and imagination, which can help students develop & enhance their creativity and analytical skills and support literacy and language development among children and adolescents by engaging with books beyond their academic curricula.
National e-library for Children and Adolescents shall provide accessibility in a device agnostic manner to age appropriate reading material for 4 different age groups – 3-8 years, 8-11 years, 11-14 years, and 14-18 years. Books in National e-library will focus on the history, culture, scientific and other achievements of India to develop a sense of pride amongst young Indiansand shall contain books from all the 23 (twenty-three) languages under the Eighth Schedule to the Constitution of India, apart from English.
Pradhan also unveiled the innovative learning E-learning platform, ‘E-Jaadui Pitara’, which is in line with the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, comprising puzzles, riddles, and stories. The inclusive and informative content, translated into 22 languages using Artificial Intelligence (AI) aims to transform early childhood education.
