Vice-President M. Venkaiah Naidu said it is important to inculcate the habit of reading from a young age as books are our intellectual and cultural capital.
Inaugurating the 32nd Hyderabad National Book Fair 2018, in Hyderabad on Saturday, the Vice-President said that the culture of reading books should be promoted in a big way. We should start with children, he added.
Mr. Naidu said that books are informative, illuminative and inspiring. They are our best companions, counsellors and change agents. We should be a nation that reads, he added.
The Vice-President said, for the society to benefit from book reading, there is a need to have one library per village. As a matter of fact one library per village and one toilet per home should become a people’s movement, he said.
Mr. Naidu expressed the hope that the Library Movement would get further push in Telangana as Chief Minister Mr. K. Chandrasekhar Rao is a Telugu scholar and book lover. He also expressed confidence that the Chief Minister would take appropriate measures to improve libraries.
The Vice-President said that our culture accorded a divine status to the word. Words have the power to change the world. Books could change the outlook, he added.
The Vice-President said that book fairs like these will help us to acquire more knowledge through new books and new writers. He further said that book fairs should be conducted in every district to promote reading habit as books open a window to a new world. The demographic dividend we want to achieve cannot be achieved if we don’t improve our literacy rate and the number of good readers, he emphasised.
The Vice-President said that printing of books never lost its relevance even after the advent of online digital platforms. Even though the number of publishers has been increasing, there is a need to promote quality books in terms of content, he added.
The President of Hyderabad Book Fair, Mr. Juluru Gowri Shankar, the Secretary of Hyderabad Book Fair, Mr. K. Chandra Mohan and other dignitaries were present on the occasion.