Karnataka - Bangalore

Despite challenges, Kannada book industry doing well: GSS

BANGALORE: The Kannada book industry had been publishing over 3,000 titles a year despite challenges from the electronic media, Rashtrakavi G.S. Shivarudrappa has said.

He was speaking at the inauguration of the seventh edition of the Bangalore Book Festival organised by the Bangalore Booksellers and Publishers’ Association at the Palace Grounds here on Friday.

The festival has been organised in association with the Kannada Book Authority, Klub Class, BSNL, Indian Overseas Bank and other agencies.

Though there were people who preferred light reading and watching serials on TV, there were others who sought out great works and classics and watched knowledge-based programmes on TV.

He felt TV too could bring in desirable changes in society with proper programming.

Secretary, Information and Kannada and Culture, B.R. Jayaramaraje Urs felt there was a dire need to expand the marketing network of Kannada publications to ensure that good books reached people across the State. The Government had established libraries even at the gram panchayat level and was buying books from publishers and writers to inculcate the reading habit in people.

Programme director of the book festival B.S. Raghuram said the previous edition had drawn over 2.5 lakh booklovers, registering an overall turnover of Rs. 10 crore. The seventh edition was expected to draw more people and register a minimum of Rs. 13-crore business.

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