BOOK PROMOTION AND COPYRIGHT
11.1.0 Books play an important role in the field of education. Along with the expansion of education facilities all over the country, the demand for books in terms of quantity as well as variety of subjects has been increasing. The Book Promotion Division of the Department of Education has a number of schemes and activities which aim, inter alia, at promoting the production of good quality books at reasonable prices, encouraging indigenous authorship, promoting the reading habit and providing assistance to the Indian book industry. Some of the important programmes being implemented in this regard are briefly described in the following paragraphs.
National Book Trust 11.2.1 The National Book Trust, India, (NBT), an autonomous organisation, was set up in 1957 with the objectives of producing and encouraging production of good reading material at moderate prices and fostering book mindedness among the people. The activities of the NBT broadly are to publish books; provide assistance to authors, illustrators and publishers; and to promote books. The NBT publishes books for general readers, on a variety of subjects, in Assamese, Bengali, English, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Oriya, Punjabi, Tamil, Telugu and Urdu, at affordable prices. It has now been decided by the Trust to bring out select titles in Kashmiri, Konkani, Manipuri, Nepali and Sindhi also. Over 6000 titles in different languages have been published by the NBT, India so far. The Trust provides financial assistance to authors, illustrators and publishers for bringing out reasonably priced textbooks and reference books for the diploma, under-graduate and post-graduate levels; and for publication of books for children and neo-literates. It promotes books and the book reading habit all over the country by (a) organising book fairs, festivals and exhibitions; (b) holding seminars, symposia and workshops; (c) providing financial assistance for organising book fairs and exhibitions; (d) sponsoring celebration of National Book Week; and (e) promoting setting up of Readers' Club in schools. It also promotes Indian books abroad by organising India's participation in international book fairs in different countries. Details of activities undertaken during the year are as follows:
(a) Publishing 11.2.2 While drawing up its publishing programme in the various languages, an attempt is made to ensure that under the different series of NBT, India, a common but wider range of titles is available in every language.
11.2.3 During the year an attempt is being made by National Book Trust, India to set up publication of new titles, and translations. As against 140 new titles, including translations, brought out in 1991-92, 300 new titles/translations are expected
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to be published during 1992-93, which is more than 100 percent increase over the number of new titles/translations published last year. The total number of titles, including reprints, likely to be brought out during 1992-93 is 750, as against 474 titles published last year.
11.2.4 Greater attention is being paid to books of those generes of publishing which despite their importance have remained neglected in our country. These include books on popular science subjects, and for neo-literates and the 18+ age group.
(b) Assistance in Publishing 11.2.5 To promote publication of books of acceptable quality at reasonable prices, the NBT provides financial assistance to authors, illustrators and publishers under the schemes described below :
Scheme for the Subsidised Publication of Books 11.2.6 Under this scheme the NBT has already provided financial assistance for the publication of approximately 794 titles for higher education. A large number of these titles are in English. The Trust has, therefore, been trying to attract authors/publishers of other languages. Special efforts to promote the scheme among Oriya publishers and authors were made during the Bhubaneswar Book Festival. A much greater effort, is, however, being made this year to ensure that the benefits of the scheme go to students, authors and publishers all over the country.
11.2.7 Twelve titles are expected to be subsidised during 1992-93; of these, five have already been published. Similarly, the UGC has a scheme under which assistance is provided to authors for preparing university level books. The UGC as well as the NBT have, however, been seriously concerned about the availability of carefully documented and well-written text and reference books, prepared specifically for the Indian students, by distinguished authors and experts. on careful consideration, both the organisations have come to the conclusion that their schemes would be more effective if these can be carried on within a framework of greater coordination. After detailed discussions these national organisations have now evolved a policy framework for coordinated functioning of their respective schemes and have signed a Memorandum of Understanding.
Exploratory Schemes to Provide Assistance for the production of
Books for Children and for Neo-Literates 11.2.8 NBT has initiated schemes to provide financial assistance to private publishers and voluntary agencies for producing quality books for children and for neo-literates and school dropouts, whereby the NBT makes direct payments to both the author and the illustrator and, in addition, bears the
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expenses of preparing the positives of selected manuscripts. 11.2.9 Till now, the Trust has not been able to approve many proposals under these schemes because the manuscripts received for consideration were not of the required standard. A workshop was therefore reorganised recently at Guwahati to develop suitable reading material for children in Assamese. Similar workshops for preparing children's books in Oriya and Marathi were organised at Bhubaneswar and Wardha respectively. A workshop for producing Kannada books will be held in February, 1993 during the National Book Fair.
(c) Book Promotion 11.2.10 The book promotion activities of the National Book Trust include organisation of book fairs, book festivals, workshops, seminars and symposia on topics related to books; celebration of National Book Week; etc. During the year the Trust organised a Children's Book Fair at Guwahati from October 10-18, 1992 and will be organising Book Festival at Visakhapattanam (28 November to 6 December, 1992); the Children's Book Fair in Delhi (2-10 January, 1993); National Book Fair at Bangalore (30th January to 7th February, 1993); Hindi Pustak Mela at Varanasi (27 February to 7th March, 1993). In addition the Trust has recently introduced a scheme to promote books in Indian languages by organising a series of exhibitions of selected and moderately priced books for general readers. Under this scheme, the Trust will be organising 27 exhibitions in Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry between September 92 to March 93 and 24 exhibitions in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar during October 92 to March 93. Two 'seminars one in Calcutta on Urdu Publishing Problems and Prospectus and the other at Bangalore from 30 January to 7 February 93 will also be organised. As usual the Eighth National Book week was celebrated from 14-20 November, 1992 all over the country.
11.2.11 For organising book promotional. activities abroad the Trust participated in Frankfurt International Book Fair held from 30 September to 5 October, 1992 and is planning to exhibit Indian books to the United Nations in March 1993. It will also be participating in the Paris Book Fair to be held in March, 1993.
Book Promotional Activities & Financial Assistance to Voluntary
organisations 11.3.0 Under the scheme of Book Promotional Activities and Financial Assistance to Voluntary Organisations, grants are given on ad-hoc basis to the voluntary organisations for organising training courses, seminars, workshops, conventions, etc. This scheme' also provides for the expenditure on the exchange of delegation of authors under the Cultural Exchange Programmes. During the year, a grant of Rs.2.25 lakhs has been released to the Authors' Guild of India, New Delhi for organising a symposium on "National Integration Problems 'being faced by the Nation Role of a creative writer" as special case. Due to ban imposed
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by ministry of Finance on incurring expenditure on seminar/ training courses, workshops, etc. assistance could not be provided to many organisations under this scheme.
National Book Development council 11.4.0 National Book Development Council has been reconstituted w.e.f. 6 November, 1990 to review the progress of book publications in the country and to advise the Government regarding measures to be taken for the development of the publishing industry and trade, to promote the availability of special purpose books of good quality, etc.
Export and Import Policy for Books 11.5.0 Ministry of Commerce has announced new Export and Import Policy for a period of 5 years effective from 1st April, 1992. Under the new policy any organisation/individual is free to import books on educational, scientific and technical subjects without any restriction. Import of other books is allowed only against a licence.
Raja Rammohun Roy National Agency for ISBN 11.6.0 The International Standard Book Numbering (ISBN) System aims at boosting the export of indigenous publications at the international business arena and to minimise to the maximum the day-to-day book trade practices in day-to-day business. It is an international system by which a distinct identifying number is assigned to each book. In addition to the book trade, the system is very helpful to the libraries and information systems and to research scholars. From 1st January, 1985 to 31st December 1992 about 1712 big and small publishers and authors have become the members of the system and thousands of their publications today bear the ISBN numbers.
Copyright 11.7.1 The Copyright Office was established in January, 1958 in pursuance of Section 9 of the Copyright Act, 1957. The Copyright Act has been amended by the Copyright (Amendment) Acts of 1983, 1984 and 1992. By the latest amendment, the term of copyright has been extended from 50 to 60 years. A comprehensive review of the copyright has been made and another Bill - The Copyright (Second Amendment) Bill, 1992 was introduced in the Lok Sabha on 16th July, 1992. The Bill is now under consideration of the Joint Committee of both the Houses of Parliament.
11.7.2 The Copyright Office, under the provisions of the Copyright Act, 1957 as amended from time to time undertakes to register the following classes of works. The category-wise numbers of works registered during the period from 1 April to 31 December, 1992 are as under:-
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(a) Literary Dramatic 154
(b) Musical and Records 15
(c) Cinematograph films 3
(d) Artistic 280
In addition to this, the Copyright Office also registers the changes in the Register of Copyright in respect of different classes of work in accordance with Section 49 of the Copyright Act, 1957. During the year 1992-93, 452 cases have been registered and changes have been effected in the particulars of 35 works entered in the register of Copyright.
11.7.3 The Copyright Rules, 1958 framed under the Copyright Act, 1957 have been amended and a notification to this effect published in Part II, Section-3, Sub-Section (i) of extraordinary Gazette of India on 27th April, 1992.
11.7.4 The Copyright Board, a quasi-judicial body, was constituted initially in September, 1958. The jurisdiction of the Copyright Board extends to the whole of India. It hears cases regarding rectification of Copyright registration, and disputes in respect of assignment of Copyright and granting of licences :-
- in works witheld from public - in unpublished Indian works - to produce and publish translations and - to produce and publish works for certain purposes.
11.7.5 It also hears cases in other miscellaneous matters instituted before it under the Copyright Act, 1957. The meetings of the Board are held in different zones of the country to provide facility of justice to the authors, creators and owners of intellectual property near their place of residence or occupation. The Copyright Board was reconstituted on 8th May, 1990 for a period of about 4 years upto 31 March, 1994. During the year, 37 cases were decided by the Board.
Enforcement of Copyright 11.8.1 The second meeting of the Copyright Enforcement Advisory Council which was set up on 6th November, 1991 for strengthening and streamlining the enforcement of copyright in the country and to educate the public and enforcement authorities was held on 20th March, 1992 in New Delhi. In this meeting it was unanimously agreed that -
i) there was an urgent need to have more training and refresher courses conducted by the State Governments/ U.Ts for Police personnels at the level of Police Academies and Police Training Schools and to launch a publicity/advertising campaign through newspapers, TV
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and other channels to create greater awareness about the statutory obligations of copyright among the general public;
ii) there was a need to improve the provisions of sections 19 and 19A of the Copyright Act in the interest of authors and other assignors/licensors; and
iii) that the Department of Education should write to the Department of Tourism and Hotel Federation of India that screening of in-house movies by hotel industry should not be treated as private viewing but as commerical screening.
11.8.2 Necessary action to implement all these decisions has been taken.
Training Facilities in Copyright 11.9.1 The World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) under its Cooperation Development Programme, organised training courses in copyright for officials' dealing with copyright in developing countries. Shri Ramashraya Tewari, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime and Railways), Delhi Police attended the orientation Seminar on Copyright and Neighbouring Rights, Geneva (Switzerland) from 7th to 9th September, 1992 followed by practical Training Course with the Office of the Special Adviser on Copyright Affairs, Ministry of Education, Finland, Helsinki, from 10th to 16th September, 1992.
11.9.2 A seminar on "Collective Administration in the field of Copyright 11 was organised at India International Centre, New Delhi on 18th September, 1992. Representatives of various organisations of publishers and authors and of other organisations working in the field of Copyright and World Intellectual Property Organisation participated in the seminar. The seminar was inaugurated by the Hon'ble Deputy Minister for Education and Culture and presided over by Shri Syed Sibtey Razi, M.P. (Rajya Sabha) who is also the Chairman of Joint Committee of both Houses of Parliament on the Copyright (Second Amendment) Bill, 1992.
International Copy-right 11.10.1 India is a member of two International Conventions on copyright, namely, the Berne Convention for the protection of Literary and Artistic Works and the Universal Copyright Convention. Both these conventions were revised in 1971 to incorporate special provisions to enable the Developing Countries to issue compulsory licences for reproduction and translation of books of foreign origin for specific purposes in case these rights could not be obtained by freely negotiated terms from the owners of copyright. India has acceded to the 1971 texts of these conventions.
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11.10.2 India plays an important role in the deliberations of the Governing Bodies of the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO), Geneva which is the International Secretariat for the Berne Convention for the protection for Literary and Artistic Works. This year Joint Secretary (BP) attended 23rd series meetings of the Governing Bodies of WIPO at Geneva held from 21st September to 29th September, 1992.
International Copyright Order 11.11.0 Under Section 40 of the Indian Copyright Act, 1957 (14 of 1957), the Central Government is empowered to extend Copyright to foriegn works. An Order - International Copyright Order, 1958 issued in this regard, vide SRO - 271 dated 21st January, 1958 was revised and published in the Official Gazette on 30th September, 1991. The revised order has been amended vide Notification No.SO 768(E) dated 9.10.92 published in the Gazette of India on 13th October, 1992.
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