3-day International Book Fair begins in Chennai

CHENNAI: Placing itself among international standards, the Tamil Nadu government inaugurated the Chennai International Book Fair (CIBF) at YMCA ground in Nandanam on Monday.

The event scheduled between January 16 and 18 has been conducted by the Directorate of Public Libraries along with Tamil Nadu Textbook and Educational Services Corporation and Booksellers and Publishers Association of South India (BAPASI), besides the School Education Department (SED).

The event that is aimed for knowledge transfer will witness participation from more than 20 countries. Through this international event, Tamil Nadu is all set to share Tamil literature with other languages across the world. Before this, CIBF has been conducted in countries like London, Sharjah, Frankfurt, Bologna and Beijing, which are popular for conducting international book fairs.

The event on the inauguration day saw the launch of several country stalls for Germany, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and the USA.

South Chennai MP Thamizhachi Thangapandian and Madurai MP Su Venkatesan addressed at the inauguration, while Dindigul I Leoni, the chairman of TN Textbook and Educational Services Corporation (TB& ESC) and R Gajalakshmi, MD, TB& ESC were present at the event.

Meanwhile, Ganesh N Devy of People's Linguistic Survey of India delivered a special address on the topic 'exchange between Tamil and the world: Tamil writers'.

"The root of India's modernity is in medieval Tamil literature. The world is moving to a non-linguistic place and now it is more than necessary to forward our experience and learning to the future generations,” said Ganesh.

Subsequently, on the first day of the event, countries were given slots to discuss their ideas. On the following days, several discussions and brainstorming sessions have been planned by the State to enrich the visitors.

Public thronged the YMCA on Monday to witness both CIBF and Chennai Book Fair (CBF) that began on January 6 and is set to go on till January 22.