BOOK PROMOTION AND COPYRIGHT
Books are an essential instrument of education. With the expansion
of educational facilities in the country, the demand for books has inten-
sified both in terms of quality and quantity. Books in greater number as
also books on various topics, have to be produced and made available to
the public at moderate prices. In the area of book promotion, the steps
taken by the Ministry are meant to promote the production of good
quality books at reasonable prices, encourage indigenous authorship, help
the Indian book industry in the solution of its problems and promote the
reading habit among masses. Some of the important programmes under-
taken in this regard are briefly described in the following paragraphs.
NATIONAL BOOK TRUST
The National Book Trust was set up in 1957, as an autonomous
organisation with the objectives of producing and encouraging production of
good reading material at moderate prices and fostering bookmindedness
among the people. In pursuance of these objectives, the Trust has been
producing books in Indian languages and English, in well defined series.
To promote bookmindedness, the Trust organises Book Fair's at national
and regional levels and holds seminars and symposia on various aspects of
bookwriting. The Trust also participates (on behalf of Indian publishing
industry) in book exhibitions field abroad to promote book exports. The
Ministry and the Trust work in close association with each other. The
Trust has two regional offices at Bangalore and Bombay and eight Book
Centres at Amritsar, Bangalore, Bombay, Calcutta, Hyderabad, Mysore,
Santiniketan and New Delhi.
Publishing Programme Some of the important series under which the Trust publishes books
are : India-The Land and the People, National Biography, Young
India Library, Folklore of India, Popular Science and World of Today.
Since its inception till March 31, 1985, the Trust has brought out 2920
titles under these series (543 in English and 2377 in Indian languages).
During 1985-86, the Trust has brought out 95 titles by the end of
December.
Besides the above series, the Trust has two major publishing pro-
grammes for 'national integration, namely, Aadan Pradan and Nehru Bal
Pustakalya Series. Under the Aadan Pradan series, the Trust has so far
brought out 609 titles in various languages and 10 more titles out of pro-
jected 18 are likely to be published during the current financial year. Under
the Nehru Bal Pustakalya series, 1139 titles have been brought out till
December 31, 1985. In addition, 15 more titles are likely to be publish
ed by the end of the current financial year.
Book Fairs The Trust also organises book fairs and book festivals at national
and regional levels. The Trust has so far organised 12 National Book
Fairs in important Metropolitan cities of India and over 102 regional book
exhibitions. During 1985, the Trust organised a Book Festival at
Bhubaneshwr, a National Book Fair at Patna, a National Children Fair
at Allahabad and an exclusive exhibition of books from Bangladesh at
Calcutta and New Delhi. The Trust also organised the New Delhi World
Book Fair in February, 1986.
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Subsidized Scheme of To encourage indigenous authorship, the Ministry has a Scheme of
University Level Books Subsidized Publication of University Level Books, written by Indian authors,
with a view to making them available to the students at reasonable prices.
This scheme is being implemented since 1970 through National Book
Trust. The total number of books subsidized till March, 1985 is 696,
and 46 more titles have been subsidized during April-December, 1985.
30 more books are likely to be subsidized by 31st March, 1986.
The scope of the Scheme which originally covered books in English
has. been extended. to cover University level books in Hindi as well as
technical books at Polytechnic level in both English and Hindi.
Publication of Low The Ministry is operating 3 bilateral programmes, in collaboration
Priced University with the Governments of the U.K., the U.S.A. and the U.S.S.R. to make
Level Books of available' standard books of foreign origin to the Indian University stu-
Foreign Origin dents in low priced editions. Latest editions of books are considered for
coverage under these programmes and are assessed by expert agencies from
the standpoint of their suitability for Indian students. So far about 720
British, 1620 American and 530 Soviet, books have been published under
these programmes.
National Book National Book Development Council was set up in 1983 as a represen-
Development Council tative body of the different interests connected with the book field with a
view inter-alia : (i) to lay down guidelines for the development of the
book industry in the context of overall requirements of the country; (ii)
to foster bookmindedness; (iii) to encourage authorship, particularly in
Indian languages and suggest measures for safeguarding the interests of
the authors; and (iv) to draft a national book policy.
The Council has made a large number of wide-ranging recommenda-
tions covering various aspects of the book industry, such as, shortage of
paper and its non-availability, lack of credit facilities to the book industry,
book import policy, the problem of book distribution, need for a compre-
hensive national book policy and the urgent need to improve author-
publisher relationship. These recommendations have been taken up for
implementation.
A Working Group which was set up in March, 1985 to draft a National
Book Policy covering book production in all regional languages and inter-
related aspects of book production, is likely to finalise its report by April,
1986.
Other Book Promotion Under the cultural exchange programmes, delegations of Indian and
Activities Soviet writers were exchanged during 1985. Another delegation of Indian
writers also visited France during this period.
Indo-Soviet The Indo-Soviet Committee set up for the publication of contemporary
Literature Project creative works of both the countries had formulated a project to publish
the translations of the 20th Century literature of India and Soviet Union
in, about 20 volumes each by 1995.
Import of, Books During 1985-86, the liberalised Import Policy was continued and
import of educational, scientific and technical books and journals, news-
magazines and newspapers and records for learning of languages were
allowed under Open General Licence. This facility is subject to a ceiling
of 1,000 copies of a single title per importer and in cases where more than
1,000 copies of a single title were required, the Ministry's prior permission
had to be obtained Recognised institutions could import teaching aids,
micro-films and micro-fiches of educational nature under Open General
Licence. The import of foreign editions of books for which editions of
Indian reprints are available was not allowed. import of foreign reprints
of Indian publications was also not allowed.
Dealers in books with a purchase turnover of books valuing Rs. 3 lakhs
or more, were eligible to apply for import licences on the basis of 10% of
their purchase turnover for the import of books other than those covered
by Open General Licence. In addition, recognised schools, colleges and
libraries were allowed to apply for import licences upto a value of Rs.
25,000/- per institution for the import of licenceable items.
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The concession for the release of post parcels containing books, maga-
zines and periodicals without the importers having to produce the import
licences continued to be available during 1985-86.
Book Export Promotional India is one of the 10 major book producing countries of the world,
Activities and ranks 3rd in production of English titles. To promote sale of Indian
books and translation/reprinting rights abroad and for securing printing
jobs from abroad, steps are being taken to publicise our books through
participation in international book fairs and organising special exhibitions
of Indian Books, by conducting market studies and commercial publicity
through circulation of annotated catalogues, brochures etc.
In 1985-86 India participated in the International Book Fairs/Exhibi-
tions held in London, Manila, Toronto, Kualalampur, Singapore, Frankfurt,
Moscow, Belgrade and Cairo. Special exhibitions of Indian Books were
organised in Indonesia, Traindad and Tobago, Ethiopia, Sudan, Bangladesh,
German Democratic Republic, France and Kenya. Book exhibitions are
also proposed to be organised in Iran and Burma during 1985-86.
As a result of participation in the International Book Fairs/exbibitions
abroad, our export of books including the journals and periodicals for the
year 1985-86 is estimated to be about 25 crores of rupees.
Raja Ram Mohan Roy The Raja Ram Mohan Roy National Educational Resources Centre was National
Educational established in July, 1972. The Centre functions as an information-cum-
Resources Centre research Centre and provides documentation and statistical analysis facilities
in regard to details of import of books. The Centre has under one roof,
a large collection of University level books produced since 1965 in all
Indian languages in various disciplines. The Centre conducts on-the-spot
evaluation of indigenous books to assess their usefulness for University
level students and organises exhibitions of these books in various Indian Uni-
versities. During 1985-86, the Centre organised 6 such exhibitions at
Jammu, Siliguri, Patna, Kolhapur, Madras and Tirupati.
The Centre has been designated as a national agency for operating the
International Standard Book Numbering System in India. In this connec-
tion. India participated in the Annual meeting of International Standard
Book Numbering Agency held in Berlin on October 9-10, 1984. 130
Indian publishers have been given publisher's identifier numbers under this
System. The Centre also prepares bibliographies of University level books
and conducts sample, surveys on various aspects of production and use of
indigenously produced University level books.
COPYRIGHT
The Copyright Office was established in January 1958. in pursuance
of Section 9 of the Copyright Act, 1957 (14 of 1957). The Copyright
Office during 1985 has registered 1,908 works, the break-up of which is
1.739 artistic works and 169 literary works. In addition to this, the
Copyright office has registered changes in the particulars of copyrights
entered in the Register of Copyrights in two cases of artistic works.
India is a member of 2 International Conventions on Copyright, namely,
the Berne Convention (1948) and the Universal Copyright Convention
(1952). Both these Conventions were revised at Paris in 1971, whereby
special concessions were given to the developing countries to enable them
to issue compulsory licences for reproduction/translation of books of foreign
origin for educational purposes. The Indian Copyright Act. 1957 was
amended in 1983 with the specific purposes of (a) incorporating the provision
of the Paris Text of 1971 of the Berne Convention and Universal Copyright
convention concerning the grant of compulsory licences for translation and
reproduction 'of foreign works required for educational purposes : (h) pro-
viding adequate protection to authors' rights and (c) removing administra-
tive drawbacks and other lacunae experienced in the administration of the
Copyright Act, 1957. The Copyright (Amendment) Act, 1983 came into
force with effect from August 9, 1984.
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The Copyright Act was further amended in 1984, in order to check the
problem of widespread piracy in the country. The amended Act makes
provisions to combat piracy by making punishment for various offences
more stringent. Infringement of Copyright has been made a cognizable
offence. The Act provides for enhanced punishment for the infringement
of copyright, namely, imprisonment upto 3 years, with a minimum punish-
ment of imprisonment of 6 months and a fine upto Rs. 2 lakh, with the
minimum of Rs. 50,000/-. The Act came into force with effect from
October 8, 1984.
During 1985 India participated in the following meetings, seminars
etc.
WIPO Permanent Committee Meeting-from February 4-8, Geneva.
Joint UNESCO/WIPO Consultation Committees on the Access by
Developing Countries to Works Protected by Copyright-from April 22-
26, Paris.
WIPO Budget Committee Meeting-from May 8-10, Geneva.
Extraordinary Session of the Executive Committee of the International
Union for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works (BERN Union)
and the Sixth Ordinary Session of the Inter Governmental Committee of
Universal Copyright Convention- from 17-25 June, Paris.
1985 Session of Governing Bodies of WIPO and the Unions administer-
ed by WIPO-23rd September to 1st October, Geneva.
A 2-member delegation of Indian Copyright Specialists visited China in
August, 1985 for exchange of experiences in the area of copyright.
Training facilities in
Copyright Under the Annual Copyright Training Programme 1985 of WIPO, India
received 2 trainees one each from Malaysia and Phillipines for receiving
training in Copyright from 6-17 November, 1985.
Under the WIPO Traineeship Programme, one officer participated in a
specialised training course in Administration of Copyright and Neighbouring
Rights held in Switzerland and another officer participated in a General
Introductory Training Course on Copyright and Neighbouring Rights
organised at Budapest followed by a Practical Training Course in London.
Since 1983, WIPO/UNESCO are associating Indian experts with the
training courses organised by them for participants from developing coun-
tries. During 1985, three Indian experts were invited by them to give
lectures in the training courses organised in Phillipines, China and Hungary.
National Society of Authors Ministry is also proposing to set up a National Society of Authors and
and Composers of Musical Composers of Musical Works to protect their Copyright interests. The
Works Society when established, will also grant licences for public performances
etc. of copyrighted works and to collect royalties from the users for the
benefit of the copyright owners.