The first New Delhi World Book Fair was held from March 18 to April 4, 1972, in roughly 6790 m2 area with 200 participants.

[1] This annual (previously biennial) event takes place in winters and is organized by the National Book Trust (NBT), India.

Apart from publication, NBT promotes national readership policies and also supports the growing markets of neighbouring countries.

The 2006 NDWBF witnessed 1,294 exhibitors on 38,000 m2 (2004: 1,205 / 32.546) and attracted 1 million visitors including those from foreign countries such as USA, Bangladesh, France, Iran, Israel, Italy, Japan, Canada, Malaysia, Mauritius, Nepal, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Sri Lanka and Germany.

Under an MoU, the annual event was organized jointly by the National Book Trust (NBT) & India Trade Promotion Organization (ITPO) with the theme being 'Indigenous Voices: Mapping India's Folk & Tribal Literature' and France as the guest country.

Some of the events held for the first time included cosplay, school librarians' meet, artist & illustrators' gallery and the counsellors desk in the Children & Youth pavilion.

An annual National Debut Youth Fiction Writers meet was also held to promote greater interest in readership.

The highlights of the fair included 60 years of NBT history in the theme pavilion & children activities in the Children Pavilion including activities to celebrate Swami Vivekananda's birth anniversary as 'National Youth Day' on 12 January 2017.

The Director of the NDWBF 2017 Dr Rita Chowdhury, Director of NBT, and under chairmanship of Shri Baldeo Bhai Sharma, Chairman of National Book Trust, Ministry of Human Resource Development,Government of India overlooked the functioning of the fair.