The Ministry of Human Resource Development’s National Book Trust (NBT) on Wednesday announced that it will be making over 100 e-books available in multiple languages as part of its ‘#StayHomeIndiaWithBooks’ initiative to encourage reading during the 21-day lockdown.
“In the wake of Preventive Measures of the Government of India to contain the spread of COVID-19, and to encourage people to #StayIn and #StayHome, the National Book Trust of HRD Ministry, in its efforts to encourage people to read books while at home, is providing its select and best-selling titles for FREE Download as part of its initiative of #StayHomeIndiaWithBooks,” Ministry of Human Resource Development said in an official statement.
The e-books are available on NBT’s website in a PDF format in multiple languages including Hindi, English, Asamiya, Bangla, Gujarati, Malayalam, Odia, Marathi, Kokborok, Mizo, Bodo, Nepali, Tamil, Punjabi, Telugu, Kannada, Urdu and Sanskrit. “The books cover all genres of fiction, biography, popular science, teacher's handbook, and majorly books for children and young adult,” the Ministry said. The collection includes books by legendary Indian authors including Tagore and Premchand.
Earlier this month, Amar Chitra Katha Media, publisher of the popular Amar Chitra Katha (ACK) and Tinkle Comics had said that it will be offering a free one-month subscription to everyone in light of the pandemic. Audible for instance had made its audiobooks service for children and teens, Audible Stories available for free until the coronavirus pandemic persists. “The PDFs are for reading only, and any unauthorized or commercial use is not allowed,” the Ministry had said.
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