Chennai International Book Fair: Three-day book fair begins at Nandambakkam trade center

CHENNAI: The second edition of Chennai International Book Fair (CIBF) was inaugurated at Nandambakkam trade center on Tuesday.

As many as 200 books are being introduced at the Tamil Nadu Textbook and Educational Services Corporation (TNTBESC) to the global publishing community in the three-day event, ending on Thursday.

Speaking at the event, School Education Minister Anbil Mahesh Poyyamozhi said, "The event will surely be celebrating languages and literature of various countries participating, like the previous year."

Pointing to the work done at the CIBF last year, the minister noted that 52 books have been translated from Tamil to different international languages and several prominent and literatures of foreign languages have been translated to Tamil.

Subsequently, at the event a coffee table book titled 'Taking Tamil to the World' was released by Minister Poyyamozhi and the first copy was received by Gvantsa Jobova, vice President, International Publishers Association.

The event that is aimed for knowledge transfer will witness participation from close to 40 countries. Through this international event, TN, yet again is all set to share Tamil literature with other languages across the world.

The event on the inauguration day saw the launch of several country stalls for Germany, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, United Kingdom, USA, Canada,

Additionally, the event saw the participation of Saravana Kumar Kumaravasagam, consul general of Malaysia, Chennai, school education principal secretary J Kumaragurubaran and Shafruddin Ali Hussein, the deputy chief director, ministry of education, Malaysia and Chief Editor, Tamil Indo European Comparative Dictionary Project G Arasendran.

Among ministers, Minister for Youth Welfare and Sports Development Udhayanidhi Stalin, Minister for Health -amp; Family Welfare M Subramanian, Minister for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MS-amp;ME) TM Anbarasan and Minister for Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments PK Sekarbabu were present.

Before this, CIBF has been conducted in countries like London, Sharjah, Frankfurt, Bologna and Beijing, which are popular for conducting international book fairs.