BOOK PROMOTION AND COPYRIGHT
11.1.0 Books play an important role in the field of education. In the present context when there is an expansion of education facilities all round in 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 habits 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, an autonomous organisation under the Department of Education, 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. To achieve these objectives, the Trust has been producing books in Indian languages as well as in English. The Trust organises book fairs at national and regional levels, apart from holding seminars and symposia on various aspects of book writing. It also 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, in addition to eight book centres at Amritsar, Bangalore, Bombay, Calcutta, Mysore, Hyderabad, Santiniketan and New Delhi.
Publishing Programme 11.2.2 The NBT publishes books under various series. Some of the important series are : India - The Land and the People, National Biography, Nehru Bal Pustakalaya, Aadan Pradan, Young India Library, Popular Science, Books for Neo-Literates and Folk Lore of India. The table below presents the number of titles published under various series.
Table 11.1
National Book Trust : Books Published
Number of titles published
During Cumulative
1990
India - The Land and the People, National 683 5436
Biography, Nehru Bal Pustakalaya Aadan
Pradan, Young India Library, Popular
Science, Book for Neo-Literates and
Folklore of India
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Assistance in Publishing
(a) Scheme for the Subsidised Publication of Books 11.2.3 To tackle one of the most difficult problems faced by the Higher Education sector, the National Book Trust, since 1970, has been operating a scheme for subsidised publication of text books under which assistance is provided to publishers for bringing out books in English, Hindi or any other Indian language for which there is a definite need and which relate to subject areas in which books of an acceptable standard are either not available or are so highly priced as to be beyond the means of the majority of the students. Assistance is provided on the condition that the selling price of the books would be fixed within the reach of an average student.
11.2.4 The scheme was revised in 1968 to simplify procedures and remove bottlenecks. Steps are now being taken to sign a Memorandum of Understanding with the University Grants Commission, All India Council of Technical Education and Indian Council of Agricultural Research, which would, besides broadening the scope of the scheme significantly, ensure greater relevance and selectivity in the choice of books published under this scheme.
11.2.5 Since the inception of this scheme subsidy has been provided to 789 titles. Seven titles, two on Law and one each on Agriculture, Engineering, Computer Science, Business Management and Social Sciences were brought out under this scheme between April, 1990 to March, 1991.
(b) Exploratory Scheme to Provide Assistance
for the Production of Books for Children 11.2.6 In pursuance of its objective to promote the publication and widespread distribution of a variety of books at reasonable prices, the National Book Trust 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 Trust makes direct payments to both the author and the illustrator and, in addition, bears the expenses of preparing the positives of selected manuscripts. These schemes benefit not only authors, illustrators and publishers but also children and neo- literates who get sutiable books at reasonable prices.
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Book Promotion 11.2.7 Apart from publishing moderately priced books for various segments of readers, the NBT has played a pioneering role in the field of book promotion by organising book fairs, exhibitions and festivals and by sponsoring the celebration of National Book Week in the country. The NBT organises a National Book Fair every alternate year, and two Children's Book Fairs and two Book Festivals every year. Between April, 1990 and March, 1991, the NBT organised one National Book Fair at Jaipur, one Children's Book Fair at New Delhi, two Book Festivals in Ernakulam and Pune, and one National Book Week. A Punjabi Book Fair was organised at Chandigarh in March, 1991. The seminars, symposia and workshops organised during the fairs/festivals have encouraged valuable interaction amongst readers, writers and publishers At the behest of the Government, the NBT also organises India's participation in international book fairs held in different parts of the world. In India itself, nine World Book Fairs have been organised by the Trust at New Delhi.
Book Promotional Activities & Financial assistance to Voluntary
Organisations 11.3.0 Under the scheme of Book Promotional Activities and Financial Assistance to Voluntary Organisations, grant is given on ad- hoc basis to the Voluntary organisations for organising training courses, seminars, workshops, coventions etc. This scheme also provides for the expenditure on the exchange of delegation of authors under the Cultural Exchange Programme.
Publication of Low priced University level Books of Foreign Origin
11.4.0 The Department has been operating three programmes in collaboration with the Governments of U.K., U.S.A. and U.S.S.R. Under these projects, the latest editions of standard foreign university level text-books and reference books for which comparable Indian books are not available are taken up for publication in low-priced editions. So far, 763 British, 1668 American and 650 Soviet titles have been published. Under these programmes, during the current year, 38 American and 68 Soviet titles have been recommended for publication.
Indo-Soviet Literary Project (20th Century Literature Project) 11.5.0 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 major 20th Century Literature of India and the USSR in about twenty volumes each. The first two volumes were released during the celebration of the Festival of India at Moscow. The Sahitya Akademi, which is the nodal agency for implementing the project on the Indian side, has
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purchased 1000 copies each of the two volumes in accordance with the protocol signed in this regard. The manuscripts of the third, fourth and fifth volumes sent by the Soviet side for Hindi translation were edited and recommended by the experts in India. The manuscripts were returned to the USSR for publication. All the twenty volumes are expected to be published by 1995.
New Import-Export Policy for Books & Publications 11.6.0 The new Import-Export Policy for books and publications has come into force from April 1988 and will be effective till March 1991.
Book Export and Promotional Activities 11.7.1 India is one of the major book producing countries. 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.
11.7.2 In 1990-91, India participated in the International Book Fairs/Exhibitions held in Bologna (Italy), Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia), Singapore, Frankfurt, Cairo and London.
Raja Rammohun Roy National Agency for ISBN 11.8.1 The International Standard Book Numbering 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. The ISBN system is still in its infancy in India but, in addition to the book trade, the system is very helpful to the libraries and infomation systems and to research scholars.
11.8.2 Since 1st January, 1985 to-date, about 996 big and small publishers and authors have become the members of the system and thousands of their publications today bear the ISBN numbers.
Copyright 11.9.1 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
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1983 and the Copyright Amendment Act of 1984 to meet the present day requirements.
11.9.2 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 :-
a) original literary, dramatic, musical and artistic works
b) Cinematograph films and
c) Records. In addition to this, the Copyright Office also registers the changes in the Register of Copyright in respect of different classes of work in accordnace with Section 49 of the Copyright Act, 1957.
11.9.3 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, and disputes in respect of assignment of copyright to grant licence -
* in works withheld from public
* in unpublished Indian works
* to produce and publish translations and
* to produce and publish works for certain purposes.
11.9.4 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 places of residence or occupation. The Copyright Board has been reconstituted on 8th May, 1990 for a period of about 4 years upto 31 March, 1994.
International Copyright 11.10.1 India is member of two international Conventions on copyright, namely, the Berne Convention for the Protecton 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
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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.
11.10.2 India paricipates actively 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 of Literary and Artistic Works.
11.10.3 WIPO has taken up the work of drafting Model Provisions for 'Legislation in the Field of Copyright for the Use of Developing Countries. To faciltiate this process, a consultative meeting for the region with the copyright experts from Asia was co-hosted by the Government of India and the WIPO, in New Delhi from 24 to 27 April, 1990. Delegates from China, Indonesia, Korea, Malaysia and Thailand participated in the meeting apart from delegates from India and officers of WIPO. Representatives of concerned Indian organisations like the Indian Phonographic Industry, Indian Performing Rights Society Ltd., Federation of Indian Publishers/ etc. also participated in the meeting.
Training Facilities in Copyright 11.11.0 The WIPO, under its Cooperation Development Programme, organises training courses in Copyright for officials dealing with copyright in developing countries. During the year, the following two officers of the Department participated in the training courses organised by the WIPO :-
(1) Shri R.N. Tewari, Director, participated in the training course in Copyright and Neighbouring Rights as well as the celebration of the Bicentennial of the first United States Patent and Copyright Legislation in Washington, USA from 30 April to 8 May, 1990.
(2) Shri Vijay Kumar Katker, Export Promotion Officer, participated in a Seminar on Copyright and Neighbouring Rights held at the Headquarters of the WIPO at Geneva from 3 to 5 October, 1990 and also participated in the practical training course in copyright and Neighbouring Rights organised in London from 8 to 24 October, 1990.
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