In the wake of preventive measures by the Centre to contain the spread of Covid-19,   the National Book Trust (NBT), under the Union HRD Ministry, is providing its select and best-selling titles for free to download and read. This is aimed at achieving a twin purpose: Encourage people to stay at home and develop a reading habit for a constructive utilisation of time.

"The people will be able to download the books by Rabindranath Tagore, Premchand and on Mahatma Gandhi. All in all there are books for everyone in the family to read and enjoy. More titles will be added to the list," said an HRD Ministry  official.

Available in Hindi, English, Assamese, Bangla, Gujarati, Malayalam, Odia, Marathi, Kokborok, Mizo, Bodo, Nepali, Tamil, Punjabi, Telugu, Kannada, Urdu and Sanskrit, the books cover all genres of fiction, biography, popular science, teacher's handbook, and majorly books for children and young adults.

The select titles available for download also include-- Holidays Have Come, Animals You can't Forget, Nine Little Birds, The Puzzle, Gandhi Tatva Satkam, Women Scientists in India, Activity-Based Learning Science, A Touch of Glass, Gandhi: Warrior of Non-Violence, and many more.

"The PDFs are for reading only and any unauthorised or commercial use is not allowed," the official added.

University regulator University Grants Commission (UGC) too has addressed students and teachers and said that the lockdown period can be utilised by engaging in Online learning.

"There are several ICT initiatives of the HRD Ministry, UGC and its Inter University Centres (IUCs) - Information and Library Network (INFLIBNET) and Consortium for Educational Communication (CEC), in the form of digital platforms which can be accessed by the teachers, students and researchers in Universities and Colleges for broadening their horizon of learning, " said a HRD ministry release.

Some of the ICT initiatives include Swayam, e-PG Pathshala, Swayamprabha, Sodhganga, Vidwan and the National Digital Library.