Information & Broadcasting (I&B) ministry’s Publications Division (PD) is one of the leading publishing houses of the country and the largest in public sector. It is a repository of books and journals for highlighting matters of national importance and India’s rich and diverse cultural heritage. It holds the exclusive mandate for preserving national heritage and disseminating information through the production and sale of low priced, quality reading material on subjects of national importance. The subjects range from art, history, culture, biographies of eminent persons, land and people, flora and fauna, children’s literature, science and technology and Gandhian Literature to work of reference like India – A Reference Annual.
Public Division
- Ministry of Human Resource Development’s works such as Gazettes of India, History of the Freedom Movement, History of India are produced and sold by the Publication Division
- Sales emporia of the Publication Division continues to sell books published by the National Book Trust (NBT), National Council for Education and Training and Sahitya Academy, even after they have got their own publications department
- The division also plays a significant role in publication of books on contemporary Indian arts
- Ever since its inception, the division brings out biographies of leaders who have played important role in freedom struggle and building modern India; this is field where private players don’t take enough interest
- The division is the publisher of Jawaharlal Nehru’s speech in five volumes; the division has also brought out the authentic version of the speeches of all the Presidents of India and the Prime Ministers
- The published speeches also include those of Subhash Chandra Bose and Sardar Vallabhai Patel
- Publication Division’s flagship magazine, Yojna is published in 13 languages; the government’s policies and planning, regional development, innovations and initiatives, socio-economic aspects of development get extensive coverage in the magazine
- Kurukshetra, the journal published by the division, caters to rural development; programmes, policies and implementation status of development efforts in the rural sector are covered by the magazine
- Ajkal, the prestigious literary magazine in Hindi and Urdu, brings out a number of special issues and covers different aspects of Indian culture and literature
- The division also publishes a weekly career information magazine Employment News/Rozgar Samachar in English, Hindi and Urdu; this largest circulated career guide publishes information related to job vacancies in centra/state departments, PSUs, educational institutions etc
The division also confers Bhartendu Harishchandra Awards for original and creative writing in Hindi on Mass Communication, children’s literature, women’s problems and national integration; The prizes were started in 1983. The last three categories, namely national integration, women’s problems and children’s literatures- Bal Bharati, the popular children’s monthly in Hindi, is being published regularly since 1948. Its objective is to provide healthy entertainment to children while educating them at the same time and also inculcating in them human values and scientific temper through short stories, poems, picture stories and informative articles
- In order to cater to the new media-friendly generation, the division has started multimedia interactive CD project; the multi-media interactive CD-ROM not only includes Audio Visual documentation on the subject but also an electronic book of selected important writings on the subject
