India pavilion at Frankfurt Book Fair to compete in the global marketplace

The India Printers Collective Stand at the upcoming Frankfurt Book Fair was conceived in November 2011, during a round-table conversation on the second day of the National Book Printer’s Conference (NBPC) in Kerala. The group was tasked with discussing book production in India and how to make it more effective. As P Sajith of Welbound Worldwide and founding member of the NBPC group says, “India’s share in the world pie of book exports is miniscule, just 0.5%, and it needs to be considerable.”

 

The NBPC took this as a clarion call to step up and launch a new initiative that, in the words of Pramod Khera, director of Repro India, was “ambitious, attention-grabbing and unprecedented.” The blue-print and plan for the Book City and the Collective Stand — a showcase of Indian printing, first at the London Book Fair and now at this year’s Frankfurt Book Fair. The aim is to help Indian printers network with publishers primarily form North America and Europe, meet new clients, and demonstrate the ability “to better service our clients,” according to Rajesh Jayaraman, vice president-marketing, Multivista Global.

 

“The Indian print industry has undergone a revolutionary change and is poised to become one of the major producers and manufacturers of printed products to the world,” says Khera. The Indian Printers Collective Stand at Frankfurt is the first of its kind initiative to showcase to the world the strengths and potentials of this industry and offer publishers the best services in this competitive environment.”

 

Naturally, this includes strategic investments. As Gautham Pai of Manipal Technologies explains, “All book printing firms in India are optimizing space at their facilities. There’s automation and tighter processes. There is also scope to expand the current  infrastructure or add new facilities elsewhere. Most firms are boosting their binding and post-press lines, to ensure a faster flow of soft cover and hard-case books.”

 

Pai outlines the Indian strategy: “The global publishing industry is different from what it is in India. Globally there is tremendous pressure on margins and that’s the reason publishers are looking at India and China. Printers in India are becoming increasingly sensitive about the total cost of the product rather than just the printing cost. In order to stay competitive, the top 20 book printing firms in India are offering end-to-end solutions to their customers. Today, most of them can offer electronic publishing with a fair amount of ease.”

 

“India is poised on the cusp of a great educational revolution,” says P Sajith of Welbound Worldwide. Today, if one averages seven textbooks per literate student, the government prints 1.5 billion books per year for 1-10 standards. Then there are private publishers who add 300-million to this tally.”

 

Bhuvnesh Seth of Replika Press agrees, “Higher education is equally — if not more demanding — than ever, due to the proliferation of private universities and colleges. About 100 million books are estimated to be focused on this segment. Approximately two billion books address the educational segment in general. Of this about 50% is produced by adhesive binding methods.“

 

As Vasant Goel of Gopsons says, at the heart of this cross-industry initiative lies the physical book, which is a remarkable invention. Goel feels the NBPC initiative should act as a spur for additional book sales as international publishers are reminded of the remarkable power of the Indian book print industry.