Union HRD Minister Smriti Irani launches ISBN portal

The Union Minister said that the ISBN portal has been created in a short period of time, to facilitate publishers as well as the authors to register for ISBN online. 

 

This interactive automated system would provide fast and efficient services in a stipulated time frame to the Publishers and Authors as well.

 

She added that after the feedback from the publishers, a mobile app in the regional languages would also be launched in order to reach out to more and more publishers and authors across the country. 

 

She hoped that the publishers and authors from small towns would also be benefited from this initiative. To address the problem of free download of works of authors from the internet, she assured the book writing fraternity that the issue will be discussed with the concerned ministries including DeitY which will be shared with the states.

 

Narendra Kohli, eminent author was the Guest of Honor on the occasion. Speaking about the ISBN he said that in present times, ISBN has become an important part of publishing sector. 

 

He further said that this online system is a good initiative towards providing enhanced accessibility to the publishers and authors.

 

Amish Tripathi, well-known author was the Chief Guest on the occasion. He said that, “ISBN gives an identity to a book. If you do not have it, the bookshops will not sell it.” He observed that ISBN is free in India unlike other countries like US and UK where publishers need to pay huge money for its registration. He further added that ISBN was manual till now and since it is online from today, it will help publishers from different parts of the country to get registration done easily and will save their time also."

 

Earlier, Aparna Sharma, Joint Secretary (BP & CR) welcomed the guests and informed that ISBN Portal is a part of Government’s e-governance initiative for streamlining the process of registration and make it user friendly.

 

Rita Chowdhury, Director, NBT, India proposed the vote of thanks. She hoped that through this user friendly system, the publishers and authors would find it easy to register for ISBN.