New Delhi; Sahitya Akademi under Ministry of Culture had introduced ‘Yuva Puraskar’ in the year 2011 to encourage young writers writing in Indian languages and who are below the age of 35. Since then a total of 106 awards have been given to the best book by young Indian writers in the Indian languages recognized by the Akademi, viz., Assamese, Bengali, Bodo, Dogri, English, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Kashmiri, Konkani, Maithili, Malayalam, Manipuri, Marathi, Nepali, Odia, Punjabi, Rajasthani, Santali, Sanskrit, Sindhi, Tamil, Telugu and Urdu. These awards are presented at a prestigious ceremony and comprise an amount of Rs. 50,000/-, a plaque and a citation.

For Yuva Puraskar 2017, Sahitya Akademi is inviting books from publishers and young Indian writers of the age of 35 and below in all the 24 languages recognized by the Akademi. The applicant writer should be 35 or below on 1^st January 2017. Last date of submission is 30^th September 2016. The books should be submitted along with the attested copy of date of birth certificate. Further information about the submission can be obtained from http://sahitya-akademi.gov.in/sahitya-akademi/awards/yuva_puraskar.jsp.

Entries may also be sent to the address given here : http://sahitya-akademi.gov.in/sahitya-akademi/awards/award_contact.jsp.