Status of Education in India
With 1.15 billion citizens, India has achieved an adult literacy rate of 76.4% and female literacy at 53.4%. English is compulsory in all states and territories and usually is introduced in grades 6-10. Despite a dramatic increase in the number of universities in India, student access to books containing up-to-date information is severely lacking.
Current Focus
Books for Asia donates more than 10,000 new books a year contributed by American publishers to selected state colleges and universities that are terribly short of updated textbooks in business, medicine, law, engineering, environmental management, international relations, and other topics critical to India's development.
Project and Partner Highlights
Confederation of Indian Industries (CII). Books for Asia, in
collaboration with CII, provides books to about 25 universities in
Jharkand, Orissa, and Bihar. In 2008, Books for Asia and CII
concentrated on universities in the northeastern states of Assam,
Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, and Tripura.
Major publisher donors: Lynne Rienner, W.W. Norton & Company, World Almanac Education, and Island Press.
Contact
Nick Langton
nlangton@asiafound.org