Prestigious British literary imprint comes to India

October 6th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Bookies are betting heavily on Israeli author Amos Oz to win the coveted Nobel Prize in Literature to be announced Thursday, though odds are accepted for a long list of authors including India's Mahasweta Devi. Blogs and literary groups discussing the prize agree that it is not quite predictable, but the benchmark for discussion is set by the British bookies, Ladbrokes, which has been accepting bets on the prize winner for a while.

September 29th, 2009 NEW DELHI - India's leading Education, Training and Services network, AISECT Ltd., recently won the TiE-Lumis Partners Entrepreneurial Excellence Award held in Delhi. The main thought behind this award was to honour the endeavor and spirit of entrepreneurs who have made a mark in their respective sectors.

September 11th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Leading Myanmarese (Burmese) dissident writer Ma Thida, novelist Shobhaa De and Christopher Pinney, who wrote the definitive "Coming of Photography to India", will be among those participating in the second Kovalam Literary Festival in Kerala next month. The event, successfully kicked off last year at the Taj Green Cove in Kovalam will also have its keynote address delivered by leading writer Amitav Ghosh, who wrote his first novel, "Circle of Reason", in Kovalam.

July 30th, 2009 THIRUVANANTHAPURAM - Kerala will host a seminar on Indo-British business partnership here Aug 6 to explore fresh business opportunities in the European country. According to a statement issued by the British Deputy High Commission, Chennai, a 10-member team representing the UK Trade and Investment (UKTI) will hold talks on discuss business opportunities with top officials of Kerala-based companies at the seminar.

July 23rd, 2009 NEW DELHI - A tea vendor with a literary passion, Laxman Rao is the author and publisher of more than 15 books, all in Hindi. On Thursday, when he was invited to meet President Pratibha Patil at Rashtrapati Bhavan, she was curious to know why Rao, a Maharashtrian, prefers to write in Hindi than in his mother tongue.

July 21st, 2009 NEW DELHI - The world is growing more interested in literature from Pakistan and Afghanistan because it wants to understand certain events that have taken place in the two countries, says Pakistani author Ali Sethi, 24, one of the youngest literary sensations from the sub-continent. "President Barack Obama has introduced this Af-Pak (Afghanistan-Pakistan) strategy and lumped the two nations together.

July 15th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Writer-editor-translator Ira Pande, a familiar face in the capital's literary circuit, feels Indian readers do not pay much attention to "translated literary works". "It is because publishers do not take the trouble to source good translators or invest sufficiently in translated works," Pande told IANS in an interview.

May 26th, 2009 NEW DELHI - In the recent years emphasis on river rafting has gained prominence in India and the Army rafting team, which has been dominating the national scene for the past six years, has been invited by International Rafting Federation to represent the country in R6 World Cup 2009, being held in Serbia on May 30-31. Army rafting team comprising of seven members led by Captain Sachin Nikam will represent India in this prestigious event.

April 21st, 2009 NEW DELHI - Pakistan-based Kamila Shamsie's novel 'Burnt Shadows' has been shortlisted for the Orange Prize for fiction 2009, its publishers said Tuesday, A sweeping novel, 'Burnt Shadows' is woven around some of the major historical events ranging from the 1945 Nagasaki bombing, the partition of India and Pakistan, the war in Afghanistan and the 9/11 blasts. The story is one of disasters evaded, loyalties offered and repaid, and love rewarded and betrayed, Penguin Books-India said in a release.

April 17th, 2009 CHANDIGARH - British Columbia will invest Rs.60 lakh in Chandigarh to set up an office of its in-market business investment and skills liaison representative, a senior official of the Canadian province said here. 'British Columbia Premier Gordon Campbell chose the Baisakhi parade in Vancouver city to announce that his province will further encourage trade and investment from northern India,' Crystal Sawyer, manager-India operations for the British Columbia regional innovation chair of the Canada-India Business and Economic Development Centre (BEDC), told IANS.

April 8th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Publishing house HarperCollins Wednesday launched its business imprint 'Collins Business' with its original title, 'Making Breakthrough Innovation Happen - 11 Indians Who Pulled Off the Impossible' by Porus Munshi. The aim was to bring more indigenous business books in the Indian market, the publishers said.

April 5th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Millions of vernacular and English language readers across India are cashing in on the boom in translations to access foreign literature. The spotlight this year is on all genres of European literature, especially from France and Britain.

March 17th, 2009 AGRA - A four-day SAARC literary festival ended here Monday with a declaration calling for greater involvement of poets, writers and intellectuals in containing terrorist activities which affect lives of millions. 'Terrorism has to be collectively fought at every level with determination,' Ajeet Cour, the convener of FOSWAL (foundation of SAARC writers and literature), told reporters here.

March 6th, 2009 NEW DELHI - The London Book Fair, which is focussing on India as an emerging market and literary hub this year, will take a look at not only English writing from the south Asian nation but also other vernacular languages, said Alistair Burtenshaw, group exhibition director of the event. The April 20-22 fair will also introduce new Indian writers to publishers and sellers from 67 countries, said Burtenshaw, who was here Thursday to promote the event.

January 20th, 2009 NEEMRANA - The Indian publishing industry will be the focus of the 2009 London Book Fair this April, with 40 Indian writers being invited to the event, and Amartya Sen being the keynote speaker at the opening. The Indian writers - mostly big names in English and vernacular writing - will showcase the diversity of literary and linguistic genres across the country, said representatives of the British Council India and the London Book Fair at a literary workshop at the Neemrana Fort Palace in Rajasthan Tuesday.