New Delhi, Jan 5 (IANS): With more than 800 Indian and 20 foreign publishers, the 44th edition of the World Book Fair will begin here on Saturday.

To be held at the Pragati Maidan, the fair, one of the largest in Afro-Asian countries, is set to host more than 2,500 stalls. 

This year the major focus would be on women authors and writings on women and their fight for emancipation under the theme ‘Manushi'.

"The basic idea is to show and project the diversity of writings by women writers and to bust the homogeneity of ‘women writers'," Rita Chowdhary, Director, World Baook Fair, told IANS. 

"There will also be a display of portraits of 12 representative women scholars from ancient and medieval India developed for the calender by NBT (National Book Trust)," she said.

There will be a Children's Pavilion where seminars, story-telling sessions, workshops on creative writing would be organised.

There will also be an Authors Corner where book lovers can get an opportunity to interact with eminent authors and literary personalities.

"Books have remained an integral part of our lives and our aim is to promote reading culture in India. Every year the book fair draws an immense crowd and this year too we are expecting a huge footfall," said Chowdhary. 

"We try to provide all sorts of book in multiple languages under one roof in cheap price," National Book Trust Director Baldeo Bhai Sharma said.

This year's edition marks the 60th year of the NBT and a special exhibit will showcase its journey of promoting reading.