Job-oriented publishing course in Jammu

National Book Trust, India recently organized a job-oriented book publishing course in collaboration with the Department of Mass Communication and New Media (MCNM), Central University of Jammu (CUJ) from March 25-31 2019 under the skill development initiatives. Graduates in any discipline were eligible to register for the course.

The programme was jointly inaugurated by the Chairman NBT, Prof Govind Prasad Sharma, Prof C B Sharma and Vice Chancellor CUJ, Prof Ashok Aima. Inaugurating the programme, Prof. Govind Prasad Sharma said, “National Book Trust is committed to provide trained manpower in the field of book publishing which a specialised occupation and is catering to India’s large reading population.” He said that the Indian publishing industry in the last few decades has undergone phenomenal growth creating demand for trained professionals in different areas of publishing, editing, production, design, sales and marketing.

Prof. Govind Prasad Sharma also informed that NBT would soon organize a National Book Fair at Jammu in collaboration with University of Jammu. Prof. Ashok Aima, Vice Chancellor of Central University Jammu expressed that the course would help participants get knowledge about how to give ideas a concrete shape… trained professionals would prove quite useful in this regard. Prof. Govind Singh, Head, department of Mass Communication and New Media, CUJ expressed that this course would help create trained professionals for publishing industry direly needed by publishers bringing out books in various regional languages.

The speaker for the inaugural session was Sridhar Balan, ex-Editor of Oxford Publishing, who threw light on the nature and history of publishing. On the next day, G S Jolly discussed manuscript development and editing. On March 27, Kalyan Bannerjee, ex-Publishing Director, Delhi University focused on typography and book-designing while on March 28, AK Sinha, ex-Director Indian National Press introduced printing process, determining size and price. On March 29, Dr Suresh Chand, ex-Director Publishing MHRD informed about book registration and in same session, Madhurai Shridhar from e-solution Mumbai explained digital publishing. On March 30th, Dr Vaid discussed book publishing problems focused on J&K. Later, Joseph Maithai Ex-Editor, Macmillan Publishers Ltd discussed all tools of marketing. On the last day, participants visited Amar Ujala Printing Press. Dr Brijesh Kumar, News Editor Amar Ujala was the Chief Guest on the valedictory function.

More than 30 participants including students, scholars from CUJ, University of Jammu and some retired officers and working Principal of Army Public School attended the workshop.

The workshop was coordinated by Narender Kumar, Training Officer (NBT) and Prof Govind Singh, Dean, Head of MCNM. Dr Bacha Babu, Assistant Professor, MCNM and Assistant Prof Ajay Singh also contributed for the success of workshop.

–G S Jolly