Sahitya Akademi invites applications for Yuva Puraskar

New Delhi, July 24 (IANS) The Sahitya Akademi has invited young Indian writers to submit their works for its Yuva Puraskar 2017, given to writers below 35 years of age writing in any of the 24 Indian languages recognized by it.

"The applicant writer should be 35 or below as on January 1, 2017. The last date of submission is September 30, 2016. The books should be submitted along with the attested copy of date of birth certificate,” an official statement said on Sunday.

The Akademi, which operates under the aegis of Union Culture Ministry, instituted the Yuva Puraskar in 2011 to encourage young writers writing in Indian languages. Since then a total of 106 awards have been given by the institution.

The award consists of Rs 50,000 cash, a plaque and a citation, and is presented to the winner in a ceremony.

The 24 Indian languages recognized by the Akademi are 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.