As a step towards presenting India’s knowledge, technology and soft power at the world stage, the Indian publishing industry came together under the banner of INDIA National Stand at the world’s largest and most popular book fair – the Frankfurt Book Fair 2023.

First-of-its-kind, the 75th edition of Frankfurter Buchmesse saw the showcasing of Indian Publishers as one unit of India, projecting the collective might of Indian Publishing Industry at the global stage. The stand projects the Multilingualism of India as the Living Tradition with the slogan ‘Bringing Stories from New India’ (नए भारत की नई कहानियाँ).

The India National Stand was inaugurated today morning Germany time 11.00 am in the presence of officials of Frankfurt Book Fair, CGI Frankfurt, Indian publishers and participants, and many foreign publishers, trade visitors, buyers, literary and rights exchange agents, distributors, translators, foreign rights managers, and others related with this biggest B2B (business to business) Book Fair.

Ranking fifth overall in the world, with an estimated value of US$10–12 billion and growing at a CAGR of 19 per cent, India remains an important growth market for publishing. With introduction of a mix of print and digital formats and a wider ecosystem including bookselling, distribution and economical EdTech, India provides an exciting opportunity to the world as one stop solution for content development and publishing. With the Government’s focus on multilingualism under National Education Policy where in addition to Indian languages and English, foreign languages such as Korean, Japanese, Thai, French, Spanish, Portuguese, German and Russian have been introduced in secondary education, there is a huge opportunity for publishers, authors and illustrators across the globe to work with India.

The India National Stand is an initiative of National Book Trust India, the nodal body of Government of India for promotion of Indian book abroad, in collaboration with CAPEXIL (Ministry of Commerce & Trade, Govt of India) and it provides networking and business opportunity for Indian Publishers participating at the Frankfurt Book Fair. The stand designed by National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad is spread across 300 sq metres at Hall 6.0, Stand A35-B15-B35 and is represented by more than 35 Indian Exhibitors in-person and more than 50 publishers through the collective exhibit of books showcased in the Rights zone of the. In addition, there is participation from various government bodies like NBT-India, and AICTE under Ministry of Education, GOI; Sahitya Akademi and IGNCA under Ministry of Culture, GOI, and Publications Division under the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting, Government of India.

The participation of the public and private publishers under one umbrella of India National Stand emphasises the Government of India’s approach in ease of doing Business as well projection of Indian publications and Knowledge system at global platforms. A series of discussions planned as ‘Bringing Stories from New India’ (नए भारत की नई कहानियाँ), includes Publishing dialogue of India with Philippines, Malaysia, Slovenia and discussion on Publications in Ayurveda, Indian ethos and Indian publishing landscape. The event also marks the announcement of Financial Assistance Programme of the Ministry of Education, Govt. of India for Translation of Indian Books into foreign languages as well as presentation on the New Delhi World Book Fair, scheduled from 10-18 February 2024.