Shri Arun Jaitley, Minister of Information & Broadcasting, Finance and Corporate Affairs released the print and digital versions of India 2016 and Bharat 2016. Speaking on the occasion, the Minister said that with restructuring of Publications Division, there have been a paradigm shift to digitise various Government Publications in order to reach out to online readers globally. Elaborating further, he said that digital version of the books would be 25% cheaper than printed versions and would also help in saving paper consumption. The Minister also stated that Annual Reference Book was an asset and a repository of information for all stakeholders.
The Minister also launched the online payment service and subscription of popular journals and Employment News of the Publications Division through Bharat Kosh, Non Tax Receipt portal of Ministry of Finance. While launching the online subscription service, he said that the objective of technology was to provide solutions to complicated issues. He mentioned that Bharat Kosh portal would enable direct transfer of money received from the sale of journals to the Consolidated Fund of India.
Shri Arun Jaitley also launched the service of sale of printed version of the prominent books of the Division through e-commerce platform such as Flipkart. The Reference Book India 2016 along with forty nine other important titles would now be available on Flipkart.
Shri Sunil Arora, Secretary I&B who was also present on the occasion said that India Reference Book was a signature book brought out by Publications Division. It was a ready reference for academicians and students preparing for various competitive examinations and should be a must read for anyone who wanted authentic and credible information about India.
The digital versions of the Publications Division books would be available on Kobo platform for online readers. Kobo which is an open online platform offers readers with variety of choices among different languages and is amongst world’s largest e- Bookstores.
Publications Division, a media unit under Ministry of I&B is a repository of books and journals highlighting subjects of national importance and India’s rich cultural heritage. It publishes books in Hindi, English and other regional languages.