Estimated read time: 1-2 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
New Delhi (dpa) - The organizers of Germany's Frankfurt Book Fair expect a sustained surge of interest in Indian literature in Germany and the wider world as India takes centre stage as the featured country at this year's exhibition.
"We are delighted to be able to share with you a tangible and long-term discovery of the many aspects of modern Indian literature that are currently unknown to us," Frankfurt Book Fair director Juergen Boos said Saturday at the World Book Fair in the Indian capital New Delhi.
"India is one of the largest threshold countries in the world.
"We are looking forward to presenting in Frankfurt the great changes that have taken place in India over the last 20 years," Boos said.
India's economy is growing annually at around 7 per cent, and the number of new publications in 2004 reached 70,000 titles. The technology and film sectors are booming.
"With its 24 official languages, India is the most multi-faceted country in the world, and in many regards a paradigm for the integration of different cultures," Boos said.
The Frankfurt Book Fair with more than 7,000 exhibitors from 100 countries is the largest in the world. As many as 285,000 people visited the fair in 2005.
India was previously the featured country at Frankfurt in 1986 and is now the first country in the history of the exhibition to appear twice as the guest of honour.
The Frankfurt Book Fair is exhibiting at a joint stand with German publishers at the World Book Fair which started in New Delhi on Friday.
There are 460 titles from 120 publishers on display at the stand, according to the Frankfurt organizers.
This year's Frankfurt Book Fair is scheduled to take place from October 4-8, 2006.
Copyright 2006 dpa Deutsche Presse-Agentur GmbH
