Lit fests as important as investment summits: Prakash Javadekar

Union HRD minister Prakash Javedkar (File Photo)

LITERARY AND cultural festivals are “major investments”, and are are as important as industrial investment summits, Union HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar said on Saturday. Addressing the gathering after inaugurating the first Brahmaputra Literary Festival here, Javadekar said, “There should be literary and cultural summits and festivals on the lines of investment summits we hold in different states.”

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The three-day literary festival is organised jointly by the National Book Trust and the Assam government. Underlining the importance of a campaign to boost the reading habit among people, Javadekar said reading of all kinds — be it on print, audio, or e-books — must be encouraged. He called libraries the “pride of a nation” and urged that they should be a “part of our lives and set up in every part of the country”.