UGC chairman encourages Indian authors to write BA, BSc, BCom textbooks in regional languages

NEW DELHI: In a step towards bringing out BA, BSc, BCom textbooks in different Indian languages, the University Grants Commission (UGC) chairman Mamidala Jagadesh Kumar today interacted with Indian publishers. He also encouraged Indian authors to write textbooks in regional languages.

The UGC would act as a nodal agency to provide all assistance and handholding to the publishers regarding the identification of textbooks, translation tools and experts for editing so that textbooks can be provided at affordable prices in a digital format, Kumar said.

“While popular existing textbooks of BA, BSc, and BCom programmes will be identified and translated into Indian languages, Indian authors will be encouraged simultaneously to write textbooks in Indian languages for non-technical subjects,” he said.

Commending the participating publisher, the UGC said it intends to translate many textbooks into Indian languages in the coming months.

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The UGC Chairman on December 7 met international publishers in this regard and said that they have expressed their willingness to partner in this national mission. The commission has also formed an apex committee to prepare a road map for translating the most popular textbooks for undergraduate (UG) programmes in higher education institutions across the country in 12 Indian languages.

The 12 regional languages are Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Odia, Punjabi, Tamil, Telugu, and Urdu.

In today’s meeting, representatives from Pearson India, Narosa Publishers, Viva Books, SciTech Publications, S Chand Publishers, Vikas Publishing, New Age Publishers, Mahavir Publications, Universities Press, and Taxmann Publications participated. Representatives from Oxford University Press, Orient Blackswan, and Elsevier also attended the meeting.