BOOK PROMOTION AND COPYRIGHTS
 

11.0.0 Books have an important role in the field of Education. With the expansion of educational facilities in the country, there is also an increase in the demand for books in terms of quantity as well as the variety of subjects. The Book Promotion Division of the Department of Education has a number of schemes to promote the production of good quality books at reasonable prices, encourage indigenous authorship, promote the reading habit among the masses and help the Indian book industry in solving its problems. Some of the important programmes undertaken in this regard are briefly described in the following paras:

National Book Trust

11.1.1 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 book-mindedness among the people. In pursuance of these objectives, the Trust has been producing books in Indian languages as well as in English, in well-defined series. The Trust organises book fairs at national and regional levels and holds seminars and symposia on various aspects of book writing. It participates, on behalf of the Indian publishing industry, in book exhibitions held abroad to promote the export of books. The Trust has two regional offices at Bangalore and Bombay and eight book centres at Amritsar, Bangalore, Bombay, Calcutta Mysore, Hyderabad, Santiniketan and New Delhi.

Publishing Programme

11.1.2 Some of the important series under which the Trust publishes books are: India-Land and the People, National Biography, Young India, Popular Sciences, World of Today, Aadan Pradan and Nehru Bal Pustakalaya. In addition to these continuing schemes, the Trust has taken up 'new schemes for production of books for School Library Programmes, reading material for continuing education of neoliterates and school drop-outs and of publications of classic literature etc.

Publishing (On-going schemes)

11.1.3 Based on the demand for titles in the various series and languages during the previous years and the expected demand which may be generated during the years to come, the Trust has now embarked on a need-based language-wise publishing programme for the year 1988-89 in respect of its on-going schemes. Consequent upon the formulation of the above publishing programme, a fixed production schedule has been drawn up and it is expected that a far better number of titles than what was produced during the earlier years would be published and printed in the coming months. Between April and October, 1988 the Trust published 102 titles of which 29 are original titles and 73 are reprints.

11.1.4 Since a large number of manuscripts are now in press and production of books is being carried out in a planned manner according to a publishing programme, it is expected that the Trust would publish many more books during the current financial year.

Subsidy Scheme and Core Book Project

11.1.5 To encourage indigenous authorship, the Ministry has a scheme of subsidised 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 the National Book Trust. The Trust has during the period under review, revised the

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rules of the Scheme for the Subsidised Publication of Books in order to attract greater participation by the private publishers for whom the scheme is primarily meant. Apart from simplifying the procedures, revised rules project the scheme in its proper perspective in a rational manner.

Steps taken by the Trust to promote Reading Habits

11.1.6 During the current financial year, the Trust is stepping up its book promotional activities. Between now and March 1989, five major book fairs/festivals have been/are being organised in Delhi, Lucknow, Bombay, Baroda and Coimbatore.

11.1.7 In addition, the National Book Week will be celebrated in the first week of February, 1989, by holding, besides many other activities, more than 40 exhibitions simultaneously in University towns across the country.

11.1.8 As part of the Soviet Festival in India, the Trust organised Soviet Book Exhibitions in Hyderabad, Madras and Bangalore during March, April and May, 19.88.

Publication of low-priced University level books of foreign origin

11.20 The Department of Education is operating four bilateral programmes in collaboration with the governments of. UK, USA, USSR and the GDR to make available standard books of foreign origin to the Indian University students in low-priced editions. Latest editions of books are considered for coverage under these programmes and are assessed by export agencies from the standpoint of their suitability for Indian students and on the basis of Indian books of comparable standards not being available. Thereafter, suitable books are recommended for being published in English and Indian languages. By the end of 1987-88 about 763 British, 1630 American, 600 Soviet and 9 GDR books had been published under these programmes. During the current year 25 American and 33 Soviet titles have been recommended for publication.

Indo-Soviet Literature Project

11.3.0 The Indo-Soviet Committee set up for the publication of contemporary creative works of both the countries has formulated a project to publish the translation of the 20th Century Literature of India and the USSR in about 20 volumes each. The first two volumes were released during the celebrations of the Festival of India at Moscow. The content structure of Volumes 3 & 4 has also been finalised. All the 20 volumes are expected to be published by 1995.

New Import Export Policy for Books & Publications

11.4.1 The new Import-Export Policy for books & publications came into force from April 1988 and will be effective till March 1991. The salient features of the policy are as follows:

(1) Under O.G.L. educational, scientific & technical books and journals, news magazines & newspapers can be imported by all persons.

(2) Teaching aids, micro films & microfiches of educational nature, filmstrips/slides of educational nature with or without audio cassettes/ video tapes of educational nature can be imported only by recognised educational, scientific, technical research institutions, libraries of such institutions, Central or State Govt. departaments, industrial units engaged in Research & Development work, registered medical institutions, hospitals, consultants. recognised chambers of commerce, productivity councils, management associations and professional bodies.

11.4.2 However,imports of foreign edition of books for which editions of authorised Indian re-prints are available will not be allowed. Foreign reprints of Indian publications will be allowed on the basis of prior written permission of the Ministry.

Book Export and Promotional Activities

11.5.1 India is one of the ten major book producing countries of the world. 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.

11.5.2 In 1988-89, India participated in the international book fairs/exhibitions held in Cairo, London, Sofia, Malaysia, Beijing (China), Singapore, Frankfurt, Surabaya & Bali (Indonesia). Special exhibitions of Indian books were organised in Canberra, Sofia, Bulgaria and Brisbane.

11.5.3 As a part of celebrations of Festival of India in USSR, seven Indian book exhibitions were organised in seven cities of USSR, which are: 85

Tashkent, Frunze, Dushanbe, Vilnius, Kiev, Baku & Moscow. Three thousand books on different subjects were displayed in each exhibition. A special exhibition 'History of Indian. Publishing' was also organised during the book exhibitions.

11.5.4 Between April-November, 1988 the National Book Trust participated and/or arranged participation of book trade in a number of over-seas exhibitions and book fairs setting up composite stalls for Indian books and by providing information to the over-seas buyers on all aspects of Indian books and publications.

11.5.5 As a result of participation in the International Book Fairs/Exhibitions abroad, export of books including journals and periodicals for the year 1988-89 is estimated to increase to Rs. 29 crores.

Raja Rammohun Roy National Educational Resources Centre

11.6.1 The Centre was established in 1972 with the main objective of promoting the writing and production of indigenous university level books. It aims at serving authors and publishers of university level books as well as research workers in the field of book production. It acts as a data bank to clear all information on indigenous textbooks. The Centre also acts as a reference library for University level standard textbooks in all regional languages, including English and Hindi. Under its scheme of on the-spot evaluation the centre gets indigenous books evaluated on all disciplines by subject experts and recommends these standard books to Indian Universities for inclusion in the University curricula. So far eighty such panel meetings of subject experts have been held and 750 books have been adjudged standard and 105 out of these have been included in various syllabi by various Universities.

11.6.2 In order to create awareness among the teachers and the taught about the production and presence of standard indigenous books, the Centre periodically organises exhibitions of University level books at various Universities by rotation. During 1988-89, the Centre organised four exhibitions at Bhopal University; Jiwaji University, Gwalior Bharathidasan University, Tiruchirapalli (TN); and Sri Krishnadevaraya University, Anantapur (AP).

11.6.3 The Centre is acting as a National Agency to operate the International Standard Book Numbering System in India under direction from the International ISBN Agency, Berlin. The Agency allocates ISBN to publishers free of cost. The Agency has so far registered more than 600 Indian publishers under the ISBN System.

11.6.4 The Centre is bringing out several specialised publications for the benefit of book trade and universities. Recently, it has brought out Bibliography on Book Industry and Trade. Two other publications viz. National Catalogue of ISBN titles have also been brought out. It has further brought out National Catalogue of University level books Vol. 3 containing information of more than 3000 university level textbooks.

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 Act of 1983 and the Copyright Amendment Act of 1984 to meet the present day requirements.

11.7.2 The Copyright Office during the year 1988 (i.e. upto 30.11.1988) has registered 718 works, the breakup of which is: 441 artistic works, 276 literary works and one record of songs. In addition to this, the Copyright Office has registered changes in particulars of Copyright entered in the Registrar of Copyright in respect of 27 artistic works and one literary work.

11.7.3 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, disputes in respect of assignment of Copyright, to grant licence in works withheld from public, to grant compulsory licence to unpublished Indian works, to grant licence to produce and publish translations, to grant licence to produce and publish works for certain purposes, and 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 places of residence or occupation. During the year 1988 (upto 30.11.1988) the Board held 7 meetings, heard 201 cases, decided 15 cases and dismissed 23 cases in default.

11.7.4 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 the conventions were revised at Paris in July, 1971 to incorporate special concessions to be given to

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the-developing countries to enable them to issue, under certain conditions, compulsory licences for reproduction/translation of books of foreign origin for educational purposes in the event these rights could not be obtained on freely negotiated terms. India has acceded to both the conventions.

Training facilities to Foreign Trainees

11.7.5 Under the World Intellectual Property Organisation Fellowship Programme, Shri M.D. Soma Weera visited India in Nov. 1988 for obtaining training in the field of Copyright.

Training facilities to Indian Trainees

11.7.6 Shri S.A. Padmanabhan, Special Officer (Book Imports) and Deputy Registrar of Copyrights in the Ministry attended the Specialised Course on Administration of Copyright and Neighbouring Rights under the WIPO's Fellowships Programme for 1988 in Switzerland in June 1988. Shri N.D. Grover, Desk Officer attended the General Introductory Course on Copyright and Neighbouring Rights under the WIPO Fellowships Programme for 1988 in Hungary from August 29 to September 13,1988 and participated in the WIPO Worldwide Forum on Impact of Emerging Technologies on Law of Intellectual Property in Geneva, Switzerland from 14 to 16th September, 1988.

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