Out of the 700 million strong literate population 250 million are “middle class.” They can afford quality education and have adequateOut of the 700 million strong literate population 250 million are “middle class.” They can afford quality education and have adequate purchasing power which makes India an attractive publishing market. It is third, behind the US and UK, in the number of titles published in English each year (estimated total 7,000 titles per year, of which 3,000 are in English). The value of the publishing market is estimated at GBP 1.40 billion (Rs 12,600 crore), of which publications in English are estimated to have a 40 per cent share (around pound 560m). There are 16,000 publishers (many of them small) publishing in at least 30 primary Indian languages.

The educational and academic market in India is large. One million schools have an enrolment of 189 million, though in the majority of schools, teaching is in Hindi and other Indian languages. Eleven thousand colleges and 272 universities form the higher education market, with an enrolment of 8 million students. The school market is largely state controlled, and these schools have to compulsorily use books published by the state textbook councils. The books are heavily subsidised but of questionable quality. Private publishers focus on publishing for the GBP 100 million (Rs 900 Crore) private schools market, and, in addition, some publishers also publish guides or workbooks for state textbooks.

Macmillan (established in India in 1892), OUP (1912), and Orient Longman (1946), are the three major schoolbook publishers, with around 40 per cent market share of the national board schools. They have books that have been bestsellers for the last 30 to 40 years; the quality of books is high, both in in editorial material and high quality Indian authorship. Most of the publishing is indigenous.

Among the local publishers, Navneet is the largest and publishes mostly support books for state board schools. MBD and Holy Faith are other local private publishers with a presence in state board schools with “guide books.” Hundreds of other publishers publish regional needs books authored by local authors. The Indian school market continues to be highly price sensitive, with the price range of textbooks being GBP 0.80 to 1.75 (Rs 70 to Rs 155).

ELT is the largest opportunity sector for Macmillan, OUP and Orient Longman. Collectively, these three would have around 60 per cent of the ELT market share. Some of the best-selling ELT series of books sell more than 500,000 copies a year. The private schools market has been mostly with these British legacy publishers but now, American publishers such as Pearson Education and McGraw-Hill are making serious efforts to make inroads in the schools market. With an annual growth of around 7 per cent the schools market offers attractive opportunities, and the private publisher community is hopeful that some of the progressive states might privatise publishing for state board schools. This could open up a huge market for private publishers, and would also lead to availability of quality textbooks to state board schools who, until now, have had no choice but to use substandard teaching and learning materials.

The higher education market in India is growing around 10 per cent annually, with professional courses such as engineering, medical, computers, finance and accounting seeing the highest growth. The market is largely in English, and is currently dominated by Indian subsidiaries of publishers like Pearson McGraw-Hill, Elsevier, Spinger etc. These publishers, particularly Tata-McGraw Hill, publish a large number of titles by Indian authors based on Indian syllabi needs. There are many successful Indian college and professional textbook publishers who also import large quantities of original priced publications for sale to libraries, and publish low cost reprints of successful textbooks.

There are, in addition to the large number of local publishers, some national publishers such as S Chand. However, most regional, publishing text and reference books cater to the hundreds of universities and colleges.

The general and trade publishing market in India has picked up in the last few years with a greater “general reading” market, the opening of retail chains, and the resurgence of Indian writing, with highly successful Indian writers like Arundhati Roy, Vikram Seth, Shashi Tharoor, Amitav Ghosh and many others. Penguin (India) has been a leader and has published some of the most successful general and trade books. Rupa & Co, a long established Indian publisher and distributor, has continued to keep a place among leading trade book publishers. Harper Collins (India), established some years ago, is picking up, and the recent opening up of Random House in India is being watched.

Apart from fiction, there is an increasing demand for self help books, as illustrated by the huge copies sales of Shiv Khera and Robin Sharma. The children's books market for long had been dependent on imports (often remainders), but the last few years have seen significant initiatives from Scholastic India, and a host of smaller Indian publishers publishing Indian-authored books.

The book distribution and retail network in India has for a long time been in the hands of 10 to 15 large national-distributors with the accompanying issues of long credit, high discounts and excessive returns. The dependency on distributors is expected to continue, but a substantial movement in retail expansion promises positives for publishers. Current retail chains such as Crossword, Oxford Bookstore and Fountainhead are further expanding, but there is excitement at the prospect of selling options that could open up due to the expected large-scale retail plans of Reliance and Pantaloon. In a few years, visibility of traded titles could substantially increase, particularly with Reliance establishing a large national retail footprint (these companies would be in general retail but books will be a part).

Overall, the future looks very encouraging for the Indian publishing market. An increasing literate population, growth in school and college enrolments, a robust economy, greater professionalism in publishing and selling, increasingly successful Indian authorship, an expanding reader base, continued growth of English as a national medium of instruction and learning, and the strong fundamentals of major Indian publishing companies, all indicate exciting times ahead.