The last session of the conference deliberated upon a topic that read: Managing the Translation Market. With a panel of six members and panel chair Arshia Sattar, this session tackled different aspects of translation within the publishing industry. The moderator emphasized on the value of translation, saying it “provides a whole new text for an audience to enjoy,even though a few things are lost in the process.”
Arunava Sinha touched uponthe market reasons for translation in India. A representative of the NationalTranslation Mission, Winston Cruz explained the vision and strategy of the organisation in his presentation and introduced the audience to several Government initiatives in this regard. Rubin D’cruz, Director of KSICL, took this opportunity to point out that languages in translation should not be referred to as central or regional as all are important and main languages and all deserve equal respect and attention. He also stressed on how important theNational Book Trust and Sahitya Academy were instrumental in national enterprise building.
K. Satyanarayan, co-founder of Chennai-based New Horizon Media and a Tamil publisher in his own right, discussed options for funding translations as well as the challenges involved in it. Other members of the panel included Neeta Gupta of Yatra Books who initiated the subject of tri-lingual dictionaries required in the industry, andJudith Oriol, the Book Attachee at the French embassy in India. “French publishers cannot ignore the Indian market anymore”, Ms. Oriol said.
The panel was almost unanimous in its assertion that there is a need for training and infrastructure to support translation in India today.
