DSBPA awards conferred, new body elected for 2024-2026

Delhi State Booksellers and Publishers Association (DSBPA) conducted their 74th Annual General Body Meeting at India Habitat Centre, New Delhi. The function was conducted by Himanshu Chawla of Heritage Publishers, who gave the welcome address. The Chief Guest to the event was Bansuri Swaraj, Member of Parliament while other dignitaries included Kartik Raj Kushvah, DSBPA President and C M Gosain,DSBPA Secretary.

Swaraj, being an avid reader, praised the association and called the publishers and booksellers of the association revolutionaries as this association was founded in 1942, that is pre independence. She went on to extend her full cooperation to any issues being faced by book trade members. She also mentioned that India has a rich culture as far as books are concerned as earliest manuscripts found in India were handwritten on plant leaves which date back to over 2000 years.

Awards conferred….

Following members were awarded at the function:A special award was conferred to C K Govil of Activair Air freight India Pvt Ltd for his outstanding service to the Publishing industry. His contribution to the book trade is enormous as Govil facilitated the supply chain for publishers, importers and booksellers for the last over 30 years. Activair enabled the Importers to get books from UK, USA, Germany and other countries at very reasonable freight charges and very efficiently.

A special award was also given to Yuvraj Malik, Director, National Book Trust for his outstanding service to the Publishing industry. His contribution to Publishing is enormous as he is not only instrumental in expanding the publishing of National Book Trust, his contribution to publishing industry in general has been exceptional.

While, Life time Achievement award was conferred on Om Arora of The Variety Book Depot, who has been publishing and distributing quality books in all subject areas especially Coffee Table and General Books. He has been serving the book trade for the last 50 years.

Life time Achievement was also conferred on B P Garg of Gyan Books Pvt Ltd, who has been publishing quality books in all subject areas especially out of print and rare books. He has been serving the book trade for the last over 40 years and has published over 45000 titles . He is popularlaly called “A Book a day Man” by his colleagues in the book industry.

The Best Publisher Award went to K K Saxena of Aakar Books, who has been publishing quality books in Academic Subject sespecially in the field of Humanities and Social Sciences.

The Best Bookseller Award was given to Vaishalik Jain of Jain Book Agency, who has been at the helm of bookselleing of quality books in all Subject areas especially in the field of Taxation, Economics, Government Publications, for the last 89 years.

While, the Best Distributor Award of Trade Books went to Rajesh Bhateja of L R Books Distributors, which has been at the forefront of distribution of Best selling and Trade books for the last 24 years.

The Best Distributor of Academic Books went to Manish Gupta of Atlantic Publishers and Distributors Pvt Ltd. Atlantic who has been at the forefront of distribution of Academic books for the last 47 years.

New office bearers…

The Business session included election of new team of Office Bearers for the year 2024-2026.These include: Himanshu Chawla, President; Ashok Gosain, Vice President; Kartik Raj Kushvah, Secretary; Shubham Jain, Joint Secretary and Chander Mani Gosain, Treasurer.