Tamil Nadu Launches Semmozhi Literary Award for Seven Languages

Overview

• The award will recognize works in Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, Odia, Bengali, and Marathi, with ₹5 lakh for each language.
• The state will serve as patron while independent expert committees for each language will select winners to ensure transparency.
• Stalin linked the move to the December halt of the Sahitya Akademi awards, which the Union Culture Ministry attributed to restructuring under an MoU.
• The announcement came at the Chennai International Book Fair, which hosted delegates from over 100 countries and featured extensive translation agreements.
• Stalin tied the initiative to his Dravidian model agenda and indicated plans to expand it depending on the outcome of the upcoming state elections.