The University Grants Commission (UGC) has taken an initiative to publish undergraduate English textbooks in Indian languages. To discuss possibilities for the same, UGC Chairman Mamidala Jagadesh Kumar met the representatives from various publishing houses today, December 7.

"Representatives from Wiley India, Springer Nature, Taylor & Francis, Cambridge University Press India, Cengage India, and McGraw-Hill India participated in the interaction. The discussion stressed the translation of textbooks for UG programmes in higher education institutions across the country in Indian languages such as Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Gujarati, Odiya, Bengali, Assamese, Punjabi, Hindi, and Urdu," Kumar informed through a communique.

He added that UGC would help publishers with the identification of textbooks, translation tools and experts for editing. The Chairman also mentioned that an Apex Committee has been formed by UGC to prepare a roadmap and work towards bringing out the textbooks in Indian languages for BA, BCom, and BSc programmes.

"UGC would also encourage Indian authors/academicians to write textbooks in various Indian languages and involve publishers in bringing those out," Kumar said. he added that a model would be worked out with publishers to provide textbooks at affordable prices in a digital format. And later, the project would be extended to English textbooks from the Postgraduate programmes as well.

"The UGC intends to translate many textbooks into Indian languages in six to twelve months. The publishers' representatives have expressed their willingness to partner in this national mission," the Chairman concluded, according to the communique.