After we won the "International Prize" for literacy from Library of Congress, there have been quite a few articles about our work. We would like to share one of our favorites with this update. Here is an article that was recently featured on the Times of India:

US salutes use of Bollywood songs as literacy tool

WASHINGTON: Badmouthed for promoting tawdry kitsch and tell moves, Bollywood's song-and-dance routines — most recently endorsed by first lady Michelle Obama during the White House Diwali celebrations this week - has been recognized as a tool for learning by the US Library of Congress.

PlanetRead, an Indian non-profit born from IIM Ahmedabad, has been named winner of the Library of Congress' first international literacy award announced this week for its pioneering work in teaching millions to of semi-literate people to read using same language subtitling (SLS) for Indian movie songs. The award, which carries prize money of $ 50,000, supports organizations working to alleviate problems of illiteracy and aliteracy (a lack of interest in reading) both in the United States and worldwide.

The storied Library of Congress, repository of arguably world's largest knowledge base, described PlanetRead's SLS work in India is an innovative program that reinforces literacy skills, primarily through subtitles for popular musical television programming, based on solid research. "It is simple to implement and easy to replicate, reaching 200 million low-literacy TV viewers in India. SLS is notable as a highly motivational approach for getting low-literacy adults to read, particularly where access to books is difficult," the citation read.

To read te remaining article, please visit: http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2013-11-08/us/43821833_1_sls-literacy-brij-kothari 

Links:

• Read article on Times of India website