‘Bank of Baroda Rashtrabhasha Samman’ Constituted

New Delhi, January 20, 2023: Bank of Baroda (Bank), one of India’s leading public sector banks, today announced that the Bank has instituted the ‘Bank of Baroda Rashtrabhasha Samman’. This award has been established by the Bank to encourage and promote literary works in Indian languages. The Bank’s Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Sanjiv Chadha, announced the commencement of this award in a special session at the Jaipur Literature Festival today. The Bank’s Executive Director, Mr. Ajay K. Khurana, was also present on the occasion.

In a multilingual country like India, the use of all Indian languages is important as it adds to the diversity and rich heritage of the nation. All the languages of the country play a vital role in nation building and enriching the literary and cultural heritage of the nation. Keeping this in mind, this award ‘Bank of Baroda Rashtrabhasha Samman’ seeks to promote the mutual interchange amongst Indian languages and to make the best Indian literature available to the general public in Hindi. The award encourages literary translation work in the country.

This award will be presented to both the original author of selected literary works and the translator who has translated the book in to Hindi from the original regional language. Under this award, every year the original author and translator of the award winning book will get Rs. 21.00 lakh and Rs. 15.00 lakh respectively. Moreover, for the other five shortlisted translated novels, the original author and translator will be awarded with Rs. 3.00 lakh and Rs. 2.00 lakh each respectively.

Speaking about the award, Shri Sanjiv Chadha, Managing Director & CEO, Bank of Baroda termed the initiative as a significant step by the Bank to promote original Indian language literature and the translations of these works in Hindi. He said, “This initiative by the Bank will not only encourage the translation of Indian language literature in Hindi, but will also encourage quality writings in other Indian languages. In both ways, it will give a boost to creative writing in Indian languages.”

While attending the programme, the Bank’s Executive Director, Shri Ajay K. Khurana said “This is a landmark initiative by the Bank. With the establishment of this award, we are going to make a significant contribution to all three fields i.e., Indian languages, literature and translation.”

Well-known writer and Booker Prize winner Smt. Geetanjali Shree, noted laureates, philologists and other intellectuals from India and abroad also graced the occasion.