IGNOU shines at Delhi Book Fair
The sale of IGNOU course material has reached new heights with books worth `2.5 crore being sold yearly on an average.
“Our books attract such a huge demand despite the fact that the course material is available free of cost in the E-Gyankosh section at www.ignou.ac.in,” informed Manjula Verma, Registrar, Material Production and Distribution Division (MPDD) at the 16th Delhi Book Fair organised at Pragati Maidan in the Capital from December 25 to January 2.
The IGNOU stall offered study material for academic programmes like management, computer education, B.Ed, M.Ed, political science, medical, nursing, tourism studies, engineering, environment, rural development, hospitality management, etc.
The course material is extremely popular among the civil services aspirants, added Verma. “I am preparing for my IAS examination and was keen to get hold of some IGNOU books relevant to my chosen subjects like political science,” said Devesh Kumar, who bought the study material from IGNOU’s stall at Hall No. 9.
“The sales figure at the 16th Delhi Book Fair reached `3.3 lakh in just five days, surpassing the sales mark of the 15th Delhi Book Fair,” Verma added.
IGNOU had an edge over the other publication houses participating in the book fair since its course material is not available otherwise in the open market.
Thus, the book fair provided students a golden opportunity to explore various programmes offered by IGNOU, and that too at a discounted rate of 10 percent.
“Apart from selling the study material, we also gave publicity material to students visiting our stall to make them aware of several IGNOU programmes.”
“The marketing cell of the University conducts exhibitions in the Capital and participates in career fairs to help students get a feel of various vocational IGNOU programmes,” Verma added.
The University has been participating in the Delhi Book Fair since the last 15 years. The overwhelming response it gets can be seen from the sales figures, which touched `6 lakh in the 15th Delhi Book Fair and `6.4 lakh in the 19th World Book Fair.
