India was designated as the Guest of Honour at the 29th edition of Abu Dhabi International Book Fair 2019 (April 24-30). The National Book Trust, India (under the Ministry of HRD) was the nodal agency coordinating the Guest Country Presentation at the Book Fair. A strong delegation of nearly 100 delegates comprising of authors, children writers, science communicators, artists, CMDs, Directors, senior publishing professionals of 21 publishing houses led by Professor Govind Prasad Sharma,Chairman, National Book Trust, India returned to India last week after a very successful visit. 

The nearly 1100 sq. metres India Pavilion, got designed by National Book Trust, India through the National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad, its design partner for the Guest of Honour Presentations, was visited on the opening day by HH Saif bin Zayed Al Nhyan, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Interior, UAE; and later on by HH Sheikh Nahyan bin Mabarak Al Nahayan, Minister for Tolerance. 

Earlier on the opening day, HE Saif Gobash, Undersecretary, DCT Abu Dhabi, along with Ambassador Navdeep Suri, and Chairman NBT, Professor Govind Prasad Sharma, and Dr Rita Chowdhury, Director, NBT, officially inaugurated the Indian with a lamp-lighting ceremony.

The ceremony was followed with the release of ten children’s titles translated into Arabic and published by the National Book Trust India. The titles launched in Arabic translation included: Stories from Bapu’s Life (Anecdotes about Mahatma Gandhi), Rabindranath Tagore’s Chhutti (Holidays have come), Goa — A Story of Wonderland, This is My Story, The Rainbow, Name That Animal, Sheela and Leela, The Whole Wide World, One Day.. and My Umma’s Sari.

The guest country presentation had various literary events, children’s activities and other programmes being held throughout the duration of the book fair. The book fair saw huge sales of Indian books, and many translation agreements and copyright exchanges taking place between Indian publishers in the India Pavilion and the Arab publishers.