In order to commemorate the journey which is full of achievements and milestones, various CSR activities were conducted at Radisson Blu hotel MBD Ludhiana and Radisson Blu MBD Noida. As part of the CSR activity, children from various NGOs were invited for movie screening and dining at the hotel’s Brasserie ‘The Chocolate Box’ with an aim of letting the kids experience fine hospitality and spend quality time with them.

Monica Malhotra Kandhari, managing director, MBD Group, said, “I am extremely delighted to announce our group’s successful completion of 65 glorious years. Over these years, we have grown bigger, better, stronger in different ways, following our founder Ashok Kumar Malhotra’s core values of integrity, compassion and courage and inclusive culture. We have expanded our reach, achieved many milestones, be it in education, publishing or Hospitality. We have transformed from a small book shop in Jalandhar to become one of the leading education and hospitality brand in India.”

Sonica Malhotra Kandhari, joint managing director, MBD Group, said, “This is an incredible milestone for our company and we have achieved great success through the hard work, innovative spirit, passion and dedication of our team members. This special day also serves as a perfect opportunity to remember our founder’s vision which guided the group’s expansion and diversification goals. And as we look forward, we will continue to work diligently to exceed the expectations of our customers and embark on our founder’s vision of taking MBD Group to remarkable heights year on year.”

Satish Bala Malhotra, chairperson of MBD Group said, “Shri Malhotra was a dynamic leader and believed in the power of education as a tool of change and empowerment. Also, being an entrepreneur par excellence, he envisioned the Group’s diversification into other sectors and it was under his aegis that the company, initially having roots in education sector diversified into various other verticals such as printing press, eLearning to hospitality, retail and design and construction in India and abroad. We are thankful to the people, customers, stakeholders everyone who was there with us over these years and supported us in our journey to make it a success.”

Key highlights of the group’s journey:

• MBD (Malhotra Book Depot) started in Jalandhar in 1956
• Launch of MBD Refresher Guides and all India Graduate Books in 1968 & 1972
• Started publishing books under Modern and Holyfaith International from Nursery to Class 12th in 1986
• Started exporting books to SAARC Nations, South Africa and Sri Lanka in 1996
• Launched eLearning vertical MBD Alchemie in 1998
• Launch of first five-star deluxe hotel of Noida Radisson Blu MBD Noida in 2003
• Started operations of MBD Paper Mill Ludhiana in 2010
• Launch of Radisson Blu MBD Ludhiana, first International Publishing office in South Africa & MBD Neopolis Jalandhar in 2012
• Launch of a new business vertical Nytra in 2013
• JV between MBD and Steigenberger in 2016
• Launch of MBD Express, the company’s organic brand in 2019
• Launched Aasoka, the powering, adaptive and personalised learning app in 2021

Today, MBD Group has its presence in 3 continents, 30 countries and 5000 cities, and publishes 50 million books a year and around 30 million notebooks. The group has more than 3000 number of employees and a wide network of distributors and booksellers across the country. It is the only publisher which publishes books for all classes, all subjects, and all educational boards in India and in most of the languages spoken in the country along with a few international languages.

MBD is the only publishing house in India with complete backward and forward integration, right from self-owned paper manufacturing unit to in-house pre-press facilities, in-house printing and binding units, and also its own distribution network with 29 branch offices pan-India. The group has also ventured into the South African and Sri Lankan markets with its basket of education services.

With technological advancements, MBD group also kept evolving to compliment new age digital publishing with innovative digital contents having over 7 million users. In addition, MBD Disha the flagship teacher capacity-building program trains close to 70,000 teachers annually.

MBD’s digital content encompasses AR, VR and robotics as well. Responding to this need of the hour and the ongoing pandemic, MBD Group launched Aasoka, in 2021. Aasoka enables students and teachers to sustain a seamless teaching-learning process in spite of the school closures. The app is driven by the latest research in pedagogy and innovations in teaching methodology. ALTS (Aasoka Learning and Teaching Solutions) which was developed for schools is a cloud-based platform catering to all academic, administrative, learning and teaching needs of schools with curriculums of CBSE, ICSE/ISC and various state boards.

MBD Sure Shot is another offering by the group. The question bank series for Grade X & XII (special edition) as per latest CBSE curriculum is available for science, mathematics, English, Hindi, chemistry, physics, biology, history, accountancy, social science, geography, business studies and political science. Chapter-wise flow chart and summary, solved MCQs, reason type questions with answers and explanations and free online practice test with Aasoka app are some of the key highlights.

Over these years, MBD group has received many awards and accolades for its contribution towards the education and publishing industry. The award for Excellence in book production by The Federation of Indian Publishers in consecutive years proves the commitment of MBD group towards the education sector in India.

‘Publishing Icon' honour to Ashok Kumar Malhotra at International Publishers Congress 2018 and Outstanding Business Woman of the Year Award for Monica Malhotra Kandhari by the PHD Chamber are few of the prestigious awards offered to MBD group.