About
PlanetRead is a not-for-profit with the vision of a planet where everyone can read and have access to interesting and affordable reading opportunities in native and any other language(s) of interest. This vision is built around its core innovation, Same Language Subtitling (SLS), and a mission to implement SLS on audio-visual content already watched with a passion by millions of people, in every country, in locally, regionally, nationally, and internationally important languages. PlanetRead's mission is translated into a strategy toward evidence-based-policy making and adoption of SLS on entertainment TV programming and the rapidly growing Video-On-Demand (VOD), digital platforms.
PlanetRead along with the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad have implemented and published several multi-year TV pilot studies of SLS in eight Indian languages (2002-present). This has led to a national policy mandating SLS on 50% of all entertainment programming on TV in India, by 2025. Building on the potential of SLS for reading, language learning, and media access, PlanetRead further innovated the 'AniBook' or animated stories with SLS to massively scale up children's reading in any language(s), on any screen. PlanetRead and BookBox, a social enterprise born from PlanetRead's work, have collaborated to produce over 100 AniBooks in a mix of 50+ languages. An eye-tracking study in government schools in Rajasthan and an impact study of regular AniBook exposure in government schools in Delhi have found evidence of automatic reading practice and skill improvement among children in the early grades.