Mr Dammu Ravi was the Chief Guest at the silver jubilee celebrations of The Afro Asian Book Council.
The council, with headquarters in New Delhi, has 19 countries as members, who represent the booksellers and publishers in Africa and Asia.
Its aim is to promote availability and sale of books in the respective countries and to popularise Asian books in African countries and African books in Asian countries.
The current President, who is from Sri Lanka, said that a meeting is being organised in Colombo in August in cooperation with the Export Development Board.