Industry & Economy
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Education
Book publishing school to create trained manpower
Mohan Padmanabhan
KOLKATA, Nov. 25
IN a bid to create a trained pool of manpower in book publishing and distribution trade, the Federation of Book Publishers' & Booksellers Associations in India (FPBAI) has set up a publishing institute named `FPBAI School of Publishing Science'. The school, first of its kind in the country and expected to begin functioning from January 1, 2003, will initially offer a three-month certificate course in the basics of book publishing and distribution, for the youth with a degree in any discipline.
Talking to Business Line on the new project, Mr Sukumar Das, President of FPBAI and Managing Director of UBS Publishers' Distributors Pvt Ltd, said the book publishing trade was a highly-structured one, and required a fair degree of specialisation and professionalism, which the school intends to impart to aspiring young people who want to make a career in this field.
He said placements were also being offered to successful candidates, who go through the foundation course by paying a one-time fee of Rs 18,000. Stating that there were plans to replicate the project in other States as well, in due course of time, he said initially the course would be conducted at FPBAI's premises at Daryaganj in New Delhi.
Asked on the special features of the course, Mr Das said there would be continuous assessment of a students' progress (on a day-to-day basis), so that anyone not serious enough could be spotted early and taken out. There will be six grades, beginning with an A Plus (over 90 per cent marks) and A (between 81 per cent and 90 per cent) and down up to C Plus (51 per cent to 60 per cent), with 55 per cent being the threshold qualifying stage.
He said the certificate course will be completed through modules, covering diverse areas such as creative editorials, market scoping and sizing up, desk editing, production, marketing and sales management, organisational structure in publishing, legal framework, logistics and international marketing.
The guest faculty would include top executives from leading publishing houses, experts from the Indian Institute of Foreign Trade and other academic bodies. The academic council of the new publishing institute will be chaired by Dr N. Subramaniam, Managing Director, Tata McGraw Hill.
Mr Das said the institute will throw up not only trained personnel in book publishing and distribution trade, but also create new jobs for graduates in a field now set to expand in a big way, following the emergence of e-publishing in developing countries.
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