Encyclopaedia Britannica Partners with Katha, Takes Indian Storytelling to the World
Global president Jorge Cauz in India to promote digital learning in South Asia
New Delhi April 22, 2014
Encyclopaedia Britannica, best known for its most authoritative reference material, has partnered with Katha, a leading independent Indian publisher with over 300 titles translated from 21 Indian languages, to take the best Indian stories published by Katha to children across the world. Katha fosters the love of learning in children through its innovative education model, of active story-based learning, supported integrally by its book publishing program.
The set of initiatives proposed by Britannica includes providing digital knowledge and learning products to Katha schools and learning centers for underprivileged children in India, as part of its corporate social responsibility. Britannica will also convert titles owned by Katha into eBooks and distribute them worldwide as a part of its eBook program under the overall eLibrary initiative.
From its repertoire of children’s titles and stories sourced from many Indian languages, Katha will compile a Literature Reader in English as a curricular textbook for Classes 1-8, which Britannica will publish and market in India. Britannica will, in turn, leverage its channels to offer the Literature Reader to schools abroad that follow Indian curriculum, as part of its curricular offering.
A memorandum, to this effect, was signed between Mr. Sarvesh Shrivastava, Managing Director– South Asia, Encyclopaedia Britannica, and Mrs. Geeta Dharmarajan, Founder and Executive Director of Katha.
Mr. Jorge Cauz, President of Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc., is visiting India to promote digital learning in the South Asia region. He has been at the center of Britannica’s transformation from a 246-year old publisher of printed reference works to an innovative provider of digital education products in online, mobile and printed versions for individual consumers and families, schools, libraries and universities.
Mrs. Geeta Dharmarajan, the creative and innovative force behind Katha’s work, for over the 25 years, said, “It gives me great joy that as Katha celebrates its silver jubilee this year, we join forces with such a respected and world-renowned company – Encyclopaedia Britannica – to get great Indian stories into the hands of children worldwide and share India’s rich cultural heritage with them. We are living in exciting times where technology is bringing great changes to the educational possibilities for our children. Our partnership with Britannica helps us realize our dream of inspiring children to learn, enabling them to become reader-leaders.”
A visibly touched Mr. Jorge Cauz, who visited the Katha school located in a slum in South Delhi, said, “I firmly believe that trustworthy digital content coupled with highly motivated teachers, especially like the ones I met at Katha, can play a significant role in promoting literacy among the underprivileged”.
Known for its 32-volume Encyclopaedia Britannica for over two centuries, Britannica has moved beyond its traditional base of reference works to broader educational markets, such as classroom curriculum, e-learning and language instruction, from a print only company to an innovative provider of digital education products.
Mr. Sarvesh Shrivastava, Encyclopaedia Britannica Managing Director–South Asia, shared that in the past five years Britannica India has offered trustworthy knowledge and learning solutions, including textbooks, interactive student and teacher resources. Its teacher training materials help promote higher order thinking skills in the PreK-10 segment for English, Math, Science, Social Studies, General Knowledge and IT. By adding Katha’s story-based learning from Katha to its learning solutions, Britannica’s learner engagement will be greatly enhanced.
About Encyclopaedia Britannica
Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc. is a global educational publisher with products that promote knowledge and learning. The company provides timely, relevant, and trustworthy information and instructional products used in schools, universities, homes, libraries, and workplaces throughout the world.
Britannica is deeply involved with schools, parents, and educators, designing products for the 21st century classroom and today’s home learning environments. The company is a pioneer in digital education, and our products are marked by engaging and trustworthy content.
About Katha
Katha is a nonprofit organization that has seamlessly connected grassroots work in education, teacher training and publishing for nearly 25 years. Katha believes that by providing children with holistic, relevant education and fostering in them a love of learning, they can become agents of change that lift their families and communities out of poverty.
Katha’s innovative education model, integrally supported by its award winning book publishing program, benefits over 160,000 underserved children, 50,000 community women, and 1,000 teachers annually. Katha is also an award winning publisher with several hundred titles translated from 21 Indian languages into Hindi and English.
Katha’s mission is to help every child realize her full potential through community-based quality learning, to spread the joys of reading, to reduce injustice and poverty through education, to enhance linguistic diversity and help break down gender, social and other stereotypes through story and translation.
