The Abhayadev Memorial Bhasha Samanwaya Awards instituted by the Bhasha Samanwaya Vedi for Malayalam-Hindi periodicals and writers who undertake translation of literary works that help in boosting cultural unity have been announced.

Kavanakaumudi, published once in three months, received the award in the Malayalam periodicals section for publishing 22 translated poems from various Indian languages. Sadbhavana Darpan, published from Raipur and edited by Girish Pankaj, won the award in the Hindi periodicals section for publishing translated works in all Indian languages.
For translations

U.K.S. Chauhan won the award in translated works section for his translation of Mahakavi Akkitham’s poems into Hindi.

The awards will be distributed on February 9 at Kozhikode by Mahatma Gandhi International Hindi University Vice-Chancellor Vibhoothi Narayan Rai.

Mumbai city now has the honor to have one of a kind digital or e-library. The Rs 7 crore worth e-library is based in a large building located in the western suburb of Andheri East. Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan formally inaugurated the digital library here on Tuesday.

This state-of-the-art digital library offers free access to general public, where they can access networks like DELNET, electronic or e-books, CDs, DVDs, Internet facility and large book collections. It offers books for children, senior citizens and resources for students and professionals.

Also, it has the unique access to Manupatra, a legal website with digital contents based on Indian laws and regulations.

DELNET is a network that offers search of over 80 lakh print and digital books stored in 1,500 libraries across South Asia. It is aimed to offer wider access to information, resources and data for study and research purpose.

The library has been setup by the Director of Higher and Technical Education, Department of Libraries.

Prof Satyavrat Shastri was awarded the 42nd Jnanpith Award on Wednesday, the first time India’s highest literary honour has gone to a Sanskrit scholar. The award was handed to Shastri by the princess of Thailand Maha Chakri Sirindhorn, herself an eminent Sanskrit scholar and former student of Shastri.

Shastri has several literary achievements to his credit, including introducing genres like autobiography and diary into Sanskrit writing. The octogenarian is currently working on an autobiography as well as a multi-volume Mahakavya on the principal cultural currents of the world and a Sanskrit translation of the representative poems of European poet laureates. He shares the Award with Konkani author Ravindra Kelekar.

With an aim to uphold and popularise the glorious literary creativeness of old Ravenshawvians, the Ravenshaw University in Cuttack is planning to build an archive and create a database of all old issues of its hostel magazines. West Hostel and East Hostel have been publishing its magazines – ‘Urmi’ and ‘Jagaran’ respectively without a break for nearly a century now. “All the old issues of ‘Urmi’ and ‘Jagaran’ would be uploaded to the university’s website www.ravenshawuniversity.com”, said Vice-Chancellor Devdas Chhotray.

These hostel magazines have played a seminal role in creating and shaping innumerable poets, writers and scholars of Twentieth century Orissa, Mr. Chhotray said adding that eminent poets like Mayadhar Mansingh and several other litterateurs of the State had been editors of these historic magazines.

The university is also planning to bring out the forthcoming issues of these hostel magazines in an elegant and attractive way as it has given a new look to the university magazine ‘Ravenshawvian’ in March this year.

Well-known writer and senior civil servant Tarunkanti Mishra will be the recipient of the Kadambini Samman for 2009. The award, instituted by Oriya family magazine Kadambini, carries a citation, a memento and a cash award of Rs.50,000.

The award was conferred on Mishra during the 10th anniversary celebration of the publication at Jayadev Bhawan in the capital, Bhubaneswar. The award is presented to an eminent person every year and the past recipients of the honour include actor Hemanta Das, singer Bhikari Bal, social worker Tulasi Munda and musician Raghunath Panigrahi.

Kadambini Galpa Samman and Kadambini Kabita Samman for the year 2009 were presented to Debasis Panigrahi, a senior IPS officer, and Satrughna Pandab for fiction and poetry respectively. Similarly, poet Sarojini Sarangi, a doctor by profession who writes regularly on health matters, and Sraddha Patnaik, writer on beauty tips, would be awarded in feature writing category. Budding film actress Rali Nanda has been chosen for the Kadambini cover artiste award.

The Kannada Book Authority (KBA) is shortly bringing out works of great writers like Kuvempu, Dattatreya Ramachandra Bendre, D V Gundappa, Kota Shivarama Karantha, Girish Karnad and G P Rajaratnam in Braille format.

The books will be printed at the Government Printing Press for Braille in Mysore. The titles that will be printed are Kuvempu’s ‘Pakshikaashi’, ‘Chomanadudi’ by Shivarama Karantha, ‘Sakhigeetha’ by Dattatreya Ramachandra Bendre, DVG’s ‘Mankutimmana Kagga’, ‘Tughlaq’ by Girish Karnad, ‘Rathnana Padagalu’ by G P Rajaratnam, ‘Mysore Mallige’ by K S Narasimhaswamy and 16 other books.

Speaking to reporters on Monday, KBA president Siddalingaiah said that they were planning to bring out 50 such books in the next six months. “In the first phase, we are bringing out 16 books at a cost of Rs 10 lakh. As many as 200 copies of each book will be printed,” he said.

KBA will be distributing the books free of cost to district central libraries and Braille libraries. The books will also be available at affordable prices at leading book stores. KBA is also planning to bring out medical science books in Kannada.

UK-based Parragon Publishing is looking at increasing its presence to another 25 cities across India this year, besides bringing out around 100 titles from the Disney stable.

The company, which specialises in books which have more visuals than text for both kids and adult categories, also plans to make a foray into bilingual medium as it seeks to reach out to more readers in the country.

“We are already present in 42 cities through both bookstores and modern retail lifestyle outlets and we plan to penetrate deeper into the country by adding another 25 cities to our list,” Parragon Publishing India Managing Director Vineet Sharma told PTI.

Parragon, which will soon complete its third year of operation in the country, has tied up with Walt Disney under a licensing arrangement.

“In the last three-four months, Disney titles have done quite well. We will be bringing out around 100 more titles of Disney in 2009-10,” Sharma said. The company is looking for more such licensing agreements with Indian and international brands.

“We believe that licensed books has a great potential and two years down the line it will contribute about 25 per cent to our business,” he said, adding that the company is venturing into bilingual books this year.

“The bilingual segment will be mostly for educational products, work and activity books,” Sharma added.

Parragon is present in over 35 countries in 18 languages. In India, the company markets its publication from book retail chains like Odyssey, Landmark and Crossword, besides modern retail chains such as Reliance Retail, Pantaloons and Archies.

Daryaganj [now wears a deserted look].

Gone was the hustle and bustle on the pavements, the yellowed texts stacked against walls, books piled up helter-skelter, hawkers shouting and book lovers, young and old, jostling through the crowds.

And the change has come to stay.

The 45-year-old book market is facing the brunt of a police drive to curb traffic congestion, pick-pocketing and eve-teasing in the area.

The market, covering a one-kilometre stretch, never had the official permission to run. But nonetheless, the hawkers had been allowed to sit there every Sunday.

Aptara, a pioneer in digital publishing solutions, was chosen by MP Publishing, a leading eBook publisher, to convert publications previously unreleased in eBook form. MP Publishing is acquiring thousands of book titles from publishers all over the world and making them available for instant download through their website, www.skoobestore.com, and through mass distribution channels.

Aptara is transforming publications for MP Publishing from source file formats including Quark, InDesign, and PDF, into the ePub format. Using an XML-first production process, the titles are available for MP Publishing to repurpose for delivery to any make of eBook reader.

Headquartered in the United States, with operation centers in New Delhi and Pune, that employ over 3,000 employees, the advanced conversion work for MP Publishing will be carried out in Aptara’s New Delhi facility.

Publishing history in India was made this week when popular historian Ramachandra Guha clinched close to a Rs 1 crore deal with Penguin India for a series of six books-the definitive Gandhi biography, an anthology of 12 thinkers who shaped modern India, and a collection of his previously published essays. 

The deal also includes revised reprints of three of Guha’s earlier books. While foreign publishers have doled out staggering amounts in the past-Vikram Chandra for Sacred Games, Arundhati Roy for her one-and-only-this is a first for an Indian publisher, especially for non-fiction. The two-week bidding war made the book world sit up. 

Why yet another biography of Gandhi? “It’s a good question but I think I can give a convincing answer when the book comes out,” says Bangalore-based Guha. “Someone like Gandhi requires fresh appraisal from every generation. I feel as a historian of modern India I have something to say-what I say, how I’ll say it, will be the book.” While preferring not to comment on the advance which, he points out, will come to him over six years, Guha sounds more gleeful that the tables have turned on fiction. “Our publishing culture has been very biased until now. The complexity of modern India, its diversity, historical depth, its conflict, can only be captured by novels and poetry up to a point. This is welcome for Indian writers who don’t write novels,” adds the author of India After Gandhi, a narrative about the events and people that shaped modern India. 

The absence of a good non-fiction tradition has long been an issue in Indian writing. Some years ago, Booker prize-winner Arvind Adiga wrote a piece in Time magazine bemoaning this lack as compared to the number of stars in the fiction firmament. Amitav Ghosh is perhaps one of the few authors who grounds his fiction in archival documentation. Says Ravi Singh, editor-in-chief of Penguin India, “This signals that non-fiction is clearly as big as literary fiction. This is the first time we have a long-term commitment from an author.”

Will this change the way books are bought in India and will authors now be able to bask in the same kind of financial glory that has made the art world smile? Chiki Sarkar, editor-in-chief of Random House India, which also bid for the books and lost narrowly, says, “This is an extraordinary case where we had the most famous historian writing about India’s most famous man. This book will be a classic and have a long shelf life.”