A view of the Chennai International Book Fair 2025 on Thursday. Minister Anbil Mahesh Poyyamozhi expects a 1,000 MoUs to be signed this year.
| Photo Credit: B. VELANKANNI RAJ

The Tamil Nadu Translation Grant has been offered to 166 Tamil books. They would be translated into 32 languages, School Education Minister Anbil Mahesh Poyyamozhi said at the Chennai International Book Fair (CIBF) 2025 on Thursday.

Inaugurating the event, he said: “In the first year [of the event], 24 countries had participated and about 355 Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs) were signed. In the second year, over 40 countries took part and 750 MoUs were signed. The CIBF is growing every year, with 64 countries participating this year. We expect a 1,000 MoUs to be signed this time.”

Stressing that initiatives such as the Tamil Nadu Translation Grant, the CIBF Fellowship and the Literary Agent Program have taken the Tamil literature to global audiences, he said that the ‘Rights Hub’ at the fair connected publishers and buyers from across the globe and fostered partnerships, publishing contracts and translation opportunities.

“Our Literary Agent Program has trained 35 young persons, who are now actively promoting Tamil literature to the world,” the Minister said.

The CIBF guest of honour was the Bologna Children’s Book Fair, Italy. Stating that Tamil Nadu was central to linguistic treasures of the world, Guest Director, Bologna Book Book Plus, Italy, Jacks Thomas said, “Through the Translation Grants Programme, Tamil books can travel to the international audience, and the world’s literature has the opportunity to be translated into Tamil.”

Chief minister M.K. Stalin is expected to release the 30 books that were translated through the programme.

Outcome of MoUs

Tamil Nadu Textbook and Educational Services Corporation joint director (translations) T. Sankara Saravanan said the gestation period of the translated works, out of the MoUs signed, was approximately 24 months.

“The CIBF is emerging as an important event, competing with the top five [book fairs] of the world. Since the first CIBF, 166 titles of 90 authors have been given a translation grant. A hurdle to bring the translated books out sooner has been finding good translators [to translate from] Tamil to English…,,” he noted.