HISTORY
It was just about a decade after independence and the nation was going through the arduous process of building itself anew. Foundations were being laid in all areas so that the edifice of prosperity could be built with confidence. The industry of organized publishing, as we know it today, was only in its infancy and books had not percolated to the bottom rungs of the society. There  were there opportunities like the book fairs for people to see,browse or buy books

It was at this time,Shri Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru,India’s first Prime Minister, realized that alongwith scientific, technological and industrial advancement,equal emphasis should also be given to the social and culture development of the nation and for which he felt that book reading must be widely propagated to develop in people an abiding interest to understand and appreciate the various cultural and traditional heritage of the country. He him self a great writer and lover of books, Nehru concieved the idea of setting up institutions which without bureaucratic controls and direction could work towards this cause. Thus institutions like Sahitya Akademy, Lalit Kala Akademi and NBT came into being as autonomous organizations funded by the Government but with functional autonomy.

Thus National Book Trust, India, came to be established. It was inaugurated in August 1957 by the then president of India, the great philosopher and teacher Dr.S.Rachakrishnan. Speaking on the occasion Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru shared with the select audience his views on the importance of books, the habit of reading and his dream of a book reading society and the role to be played by National Book Trust, India in realizing the dream. The function was also graced by Dr.Maulana Abul Kalam Azad and Shri John Mathai, the first chairman of the Trust.

The Trust was formally constituted as an autonomous organization under the Ministry of Education, Govt. of India, with its corporate office in New Delhi. Fully financed by the Govt. of India the NBT has a Board of Trustees and Executive Committee.

The activities ad programmes of the Trust are initiated, implemented, monitored and controlled by the EC. Its objectives, activities and the achievements are reviewed from time to time and designed to meet new challenges which arise in the field of promoting reading habit. The concept of reading habit or book mindedness as Nehru envisaged was not confined to text books or professional books or career development books but the emphasis was on general reading, thus shaping its major aims and objectives.

In the formative years these objectives were:

to produce and to encourage the production of good literature and to make
such literature available at moderate prices to the public:
in furtherance of the above objective, to publish, more particularly books of the following types in English, Hindi and other languages recognised in the Constitution of India:

• the classical literature of India:
• outstanding works of Indian authors in Indian languages and their
translation from one Indian language to another:
• translation of outstanding books from foreign languages:
• outstanding books of modern knowledge for popular diffusion:

to bring out book lists, arrange exhibitions and seminars and take all necessary steps to make the people book minded:
to establish or promote the formation of regional book trusts in different parts of the country with objectives similar to those of the Trust.

As of today the main objectives of the Trust are:

Publishing good reading material for all segments of society and for all age groups.
Promoting books and the habit of reading by organizing book fairs and exhibitions throughout the country and putting up language-wise and genre-wise exhibitions of select, moderately priced books brought out by publishers from the private and public sectors.
Promoting Indian publications abroad, through participation in international book fairs and putting up exhibition to display select titles brought out by various Indian Publishers.
Promoting the publication of reasonably priced books for higher education. NBT gives financial assistance to authors and publishers of university level text-books and reference books.
Promoting of children’s literature. the Trust also works as nodal agency to monitor, coordinate, plan and aid the publication of children’s literature in various Indian languages.

It has established the National Centre for children’s Literature in 1993,to popularize books and reading habit amongst children.

It has been accepted that the most effective measure for promoting books is book fairs and exhibitions and the NBT has been playing a pioneering role in organising book fairs and exhibitions at the international, national, regional and at the rural levels. The book fairs and exhibitions organised by the NBT have been greatly appreciated by the book lovers and the book trade because they not only enable the book lovers to witness a large array of books in one single place but it also provides the opportunity for meeting and interaction between various segments of the book trade. During these book fairs the NBT also organises seminars, symposia, workshops, etc. simultaneously it provides the much needed infrastructural facilities to the book trade, federations and allied organisations to hold their programmes of similar nature.

In order to promote the interest of the publishers of Indian languages books the NBT offers space and stands on lower rents. During World Book Fairs, it also offers local hospitality to representatives of developing countries as also free stands/stalls to enable them to participate in this international event.

The NBT has so far organised 22 National Book Fairs and 14 World Book Fairs. In addition, the NBT  also organises many book exhibitions at the regional and semiurban levels. Besides it also organises special mobile book exhibition in various states.The states covered are Andhra Pradesh, Assam,Bihar, Delhi, Goa, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Orissa,Punjab, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal.

From a mere handful of books in a year to about 800 titles a year now, the publishing profile of NBT has grown by leaps and bounds.

In its formative years the Trust did not have its own editorial and production units. Manuscripts in different languages were got ready and assigned for printing and marketing to other agencies, like the Publication Division and other publishers in the respective of language regions. In late 60’s the Trust stated its own editorial and printing activities. In the year 1969-70, the number of books published was 106. Ten years later, In 79-80 it was 188 and in 1989-90 the number was 851. From then on an average of about 600 to 700 titles are brought out every year which include originals, translations and reprints and cover 18 languages.

During the last few years the Trust got into publishing useful books for the benefit of neoliterates. There was a large segment of society that had just begun to read and providing books for them was a challenging task. With a lot of research and cooperation from experts, the Trust has  been able to sustain their interest in reading by reaching out to them. Many of these books were prepared in workshops and field tested before the intended readers before publishing.

While this was an unique effort to bring a marginalized segment of readership to main stream reading the Trust continued to look at other similar such segments. Books for visually handicapped and mentally challenged were its other priority areas.

The rendering of some of the Trust’s finest publications into Braille has met with tremendous success and popularity among the visually handicapped. the success of the initial attempt in this the direction has encouraged the Trust to render many more titles into Braille.

Activity based books for children with disabilities is another prime area which the Trust in now exploring. Not only are some of existing NBT’s titles for children being adopted but also new titles are being developed to cater to them. In a few years from now, the Trust will be fully equipped to fulfil their special needs.

Constantly endeavoring in identifying newer areas of publishing the Trust could not ignore the rapid strides that technology has made in all spheres of our life, particularly the World of books. The Trust is exploring the possibilities of electronic publishing, has already brought out a few titles on CD-Rom in English and Hindi.