Edition 20 of the Delhi Book Fair saw a lukewarm opening today with sparse crowd and leading publishing houses deciding to give the event a miss.
The nine-day fair, themed on "Cinema in Literature" has gone high-tech with an exclusive mobile app designed to guide visitors across the sprawling Pragati Maidan venue here.
"The app is available for download and one can easily download it in their mobile phones," President, Federation of Indian Publishers (FIP), Ashok Gupta said.
The app listing information on the position of stalls, pavilions, washrooms and other essential amenities at the venue was functional.
The FIP in collaboration with Indian Trade Promotion Organisation (ITPO) is organising the Fair, which is hosting 300 publishers.
A number of publishing houses dedicated to publishing school text books were present at the venue that saw presence of number of school children in uniforms.
Leading textbook publishing house MBD used the Fair as a platform to introduce a new technology called 'augmented reality' among school children.
"Students will be able to make maximum use of cloud computing technology to comprehend their study material by downloading mobile app which is expected to be in the market by the end of the year," Senior Director, MBD, Monica Malhotra Kandhari said.
Air-conditioned buses ferried visitors in the hot weather with frequent trips from all the entries to Hall Nos. 08, 09, 10, 11 and 12 in Pragati Maidan.
In-tune with the theme of the fair, one hall showcased panels about different films adapted from books to showcase the influence of literature in cinema in India.
A poster of the film adaptation of the recently deceased Kannada writer U R Ananthamurthy's book "Samaskara" featuring Girish Karnad was part of a showcase.
Description of films adaptations "Umrao Jaan", "Life of Pi", "The Blue Umbrella" and "White Night" have also been portrayed on elaborate posters.
The event was inaugurated by Chairman and MD of Indian Trade Promotion Organisation (ITPO) Rita Menon.
A total of 169 stalls were up on the first day of the Fair, scheduled to conclude on August 31.
