Promoting the concept of book reading, Nuzhat Hassan, Director, National Book Trust, mentioned her desire for biennial New Delhi World Book Fair to become a self sustaining project so that the system of giving a portion of the subsidies to publishers can be done away with. At the 19th New Delhi World Book Fair, she described that subsidies were being given to Hindi and the regional language publishers to enable them to open their stalls and stands at half the rates.
Emphasising upon the fact that book reading habit amongst the grown-ups and children hasn't decreased, the NBT Director told that to no doubt Internet is a knowledge tool but it is certainly not a replacement of books. Additionally, she mentioned that National Council for Applied Economic Research was soon to conduct a national readership survey commissioned by NBT. The book fair has grown by leaps and bounds and is now on the international calendar, she added.
