80 Tamil publishers participate in Chennai Book Fair

By Our Staff Reporter

CHENNAI, JAN. 6. The Chennai Book Fair, which was declared open on Friday at the Quaid-e-Millet Government College for Women, offers a range of Tamil publications compared to the previous years.

The fair, being held for the 24th consecutive year, has attracted about 80 Tamil publishers this year, the organisers said. This was a departure from the trend as in the initial years, only one stall was allocated for a group of Tamil publishers. A total of 180 leading publishing houses in both English and Tamil have put up stalls in the 11-day fair.

At the inaugural function organised by the Booksellers' and Publishers' Association of South India (BAPASI), Prof. K.P. Aravanan, Vice-Chancellor, Manonmaniam Sundaranar University, regretted that in the age of the electronic media, the people were gradually losing their reading habit. He said book stalls and libraries should be put up in long distance trains, star hotels and factories to promote reading habit and it should be made compulsory in all educational institutions.

Prof. R. Natarajan, Director, IIT-Madras, said books and the electronic media were complementary to each other. The Chennai Book Fair was evolving into an educational fair with the co- existence of print and electronic educational materials.

With the new generation youth having short attention span and a take-it-all-at-once attitude, the teachers need to be more a coach or facilitator in the process of learning.

The following persons were presented awards on the occasion: Prof. C.K. Prahalad in absentia for the best English author of the year, Prof. A.S. Gnanasambandan for the best Tamil writer and Mr. S.M. Palaniappa Chettiar for the best Tamil publisher.

A special award was given to Alliance Company which is celebrating its Centenary.

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