As we wrote in our January cover story, the DB Group and its joint-venture with Zee Television Diligent Media, have together placed an order for 25 KBA Prisma 4 x 1 towers with seven folders and 25 reel-stands. We expect that the twenty-five 4-Hi towers will be constructed as four press lines, and perhaps deployed in four centres with Mumbai the main or largest location from where DNA began its operations just three years ago. Of the seven folders, six are single folders and one is a double folder. DNA is currently published from four centres in India – Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Surat, and since the first half of February 2008—Pune.

DNA plans to grow these to nine centres by the end of 2008. Delhi, which is not included in this year’s nine-centre expansion, will apparently come on the DNA map in 2009.

With the installation of the KBA Prisma lines at Mumbai, the seven Manugraph 4-Himachines at Mumbai will become available for deployment at new centres. However there is still some speculation about where the four Prisma presslines will go. One can assume that one pressline will go into the Mumbai plant, another line may go to Ahmedabad, and other locations may include Jaipur and possibly Bangalore.

The DB Group has ordered the Prisma towers in a slightly narrower configuration with a web width of 1527 mmand a 546mmcut-off. The current width of DNA pages like the other major English language broadsheets in the country is 349mm (13.74 inches) meaning that
699mm(27.5 inch) reels are commonly run and 1397mm(55 inch) reels are run on the larger double-wide presses. However, the DNA Prisma order has taken into account the possibility of Indian broadsheet widths shrinking further by provisioning flexibility into the folders. It is likely that the each of the four presslines will be able to produce 48 broadsheet pages in full colour. This capacity for pagination and full colour at high speeds would immediately create the second largest daily capacity in the country behind Bennett Coleman publishers of the Times of India.

DNA has also finalised its CtP order. Although the group had purchased thermal CtPs at its inception, it has now sided with the majority of Indian
newspapers and switched to violet with a robust order for 30 Krause LS300 platesetters and automated Nela punch and benders. The beginning of the week of February 4 brought the announcement of the mail room order to IDAB Wamac. This is quite a victory for Newstech the Indian distributor for KBA’s web presses, Nela and IDAB Wamac. Krause is sold in India by Intergraphica Print and Pack. The first of the KBA Prisma press lines are expected to be delivered as early as this summer.

Upstart IPO
The DB Group comprising DiligentMedia Corporation and DB
Corporation, began publishing the upstart English language daily DNA in
The most lucrative market of India’s commercial capital Mumbai in 2005. DNA currently has already achieved number two status in Mumbai with about 350,000 copies in the city and has expanded to three more cities in Western India – Ahmedabad and Surat in Gujarat and most recently just this month to Pune at the other end of the megalopolis. The Dainik Bhaskar Group’s initial public offering is also expected to take place this month (February 2008). Some reports published on the Internet suggested that 10 per cent of the equity would be divested for approximately Rs.1,000 crore (about US$ 250million) which of course means that the group valuation is of approximately Rs. 10,000 crores or US$ 2.5 billion.