As India’s literary circuit celebrates the first-ever International Booker Prize for an Indian language book, Geetanjali Shree’s Tomb of Sand, a translated version of Ret Samadhi in Hindi, the mood is upbeat for publishing in regional languages.

As if taking a cue from Frank Wynne, the chair of the judges for this year’s prize, who said in an online news conference that the recognition for Tomb of Sand was important given its language, as tens of thousands of books are published every year in Indian languages, yet few are translated into English, publishers back home feel this will just energise an ecosystem that is already on its way to revolutionise Indian publishing.

Meru Gokhale, publisher, Penguin Press, Penguin Random House India, which published Tomb of Sand in March this year, said, “It’s a landmark day for Indian publishing. This win honours Geetanjali Shree’s genius and Daisy Rockwell’s brilliant translation. Just as excitingly, it also opens up possibilities for so many other writers and translators who can hope to reach international readers.”

While India has several writers writing in English, translations of Hindi, as well as regional language books into English, have been picking pace in recent years. From pulp fiction like Surendra Mohan Pathak to titles like Vivek Shanbhag’s Ghachar Ghochar, the repertoire of translations has been all-encompassing. However, today’s win will bring much-needed impetus to the translation market. A recent study, ‘India Literature and Publishing Sector Study’, also pointed out that Indian literature in translation needs to be more visible to Anglophone publishers, and this also requires promoting writers and translators and inviting publishers to India to engage with the publishing and literary ecosystem.

The University Grants Commission (UGC) plans to do away with the mandatory requirement of publishing research papers in peer-reviewed journals for the submission of a PhD thesis, officials said. The commission will allow higher education institutions to formulate their own rules and regulations on the matter. The reason for doing so is because many PhD students were resorting to publishing their articles in so-called predatory journals – basically, those that publish articles in return for a fee, without adequate due diligence of the sort academic publications are expected to ensure.

The commission is currently making amendments to the UGC (Minimum Standards and Procedures for Award of PhD Degree) Regulations, 2016. Under the 2016 regulations, it was mandatory for PhD scholars to publish at least one research paper in a UGC refereed or peer-reviewed journal before the submission of the dissertation/thesis for adjudication.

Under the new, 2022 regulations, the commission will replace the term mandatory with “strongly recommended”. The quality assessment of PhD degrees will be a responsibility of the universities and they are free to come up with their own guidelines in this regard.

“This mandatory requirement led to a “journal business” in India. Making anything mandatory does not improve the quality of research. Therefore, UGC is now considering doing away with this requirement while strongly recommending research scholars to publish the research outcomes of their PhD in peer-reviewed journals, apply for patents, and present in conferences,” UGC chairperson M Jagadesh Kumar told HT.

The road ahead is promising for the publishing industry as it emerges from the pandemic with a resounding bang and learns several lessons from the experience of the past two years, stakeholders that IANS spoke to ahead of World Book Day on April 23 said.
Not losing a sense of purpose and of community, nimbleness, not working in silos, noticing subliminal sales shifts, attention to ebooks and audiobooks, integrating with the digital space, adopting better social media strategies and a steep rise in the demand for Indian literature are the pointers to the future, the stakeholders said.
"Books were actually a trusted companion for many a reader during the pandemic years; not only did people read new books that were being published, but they re-read old favourites, and they also read some of the books that they had been meaning to but hadn't found time for," Udayan Mitra, Executive Publisher of HarperCollins India, said.
"It is heartening to see how many books were published - and read and appreciated - during the very difficult times of the pandemic. As we emerge out of the shadow of the pandemic, the publishing industry is in robust shape, with some wonderful new books being published, and the book retail also up and running again," he added.
The road ahead seems promising, Nandan Jha, EVP Product & Sales and Business Development, Penguin Random House India, said.
"The way the market is opening up, bookstores are re-launching and festivals are taking place, we hope to be able to resume activities as they were pre-pandemic. The road ahead seems promising now. We have an incredible line-up for the year ahead and it's going to keep us busy. Most importantly, we remain nimble in our approach and are reviewing the changes and growth around us," Jha said.
The pandemic had accelerated certain changes, as had happened in homes and families, Sumanta Mitra, MD, Oxford University Press India, said.
"We can look positively at the future because the pandemic has forced us to accelerate certain changes, as we have all had to do in our homes and in our families. One of the most highly commented phenomena has been the acceleration in the use of digital media and platforms, which certainly provides new opportunities to engage with new generations of students, without forgetting the OUP legacy of creating high-quality scholarly materials for the public good.

Publishers are resorting to out-of-the-box ideas, new ways of promoting books
The once robust Bengali publishing industry, hit hard by the pandemic and the consequent lockdowns, is seeing a revival with the lifting of restrictions and the holding of the Kolkata book fair in March this year, according to publishers and authors alike.
“They have reawakened the industry,” said Subhankar Dey of Dey’s Publishing, one of the most reputed Bengali publishers, about the recently held book fair, organised after a gap of two years, and the overall lifting of lockdown restrictions putting the business on the path of revival. Young publishers
“In the last five years or so, several young people got into the business, many of them coming out with literary works that were off the beaten track. They too suffered due to the lockdown. But the book fair helped them reconnect with their readers and they are bouncing back now,” said Mr. Dey.
There are close to 400 Bengali publishers and 200 little magazines, most of them concentrated in Kolkata’s busy College Street, which is once again bustling with activity. College Street was not only hit by the pandemic but also by Cyclone Amphan which washed away countless books from its iconic pavements.
Rhito Prakashan, established in 2015, is one such example of younger people getting into publishing. “Lockdown was a serious threat. There was a time when I personally used to deliver books to the doorsteps of readers, riding on a motorbike, after taking special permission from the police. Once online platforms started to function, things became a bit easy. We also ventured into e-books,” said Aitrayee Sarkar, proprietor of Rhito, whose recent bestsellers include by Goutam Mitra (a literary biography of Jibanananda Das) and (a collection of pieces on Goddess Durga and her family).
“The book fair gave us the much-required push. It not only saved many publishers but also binders, paper suppliers, practically everyone related to this trade,” Ms. Sarkar said. She added, “I think publishing is going through a major shift. It is increasingly seeing out-of-the-box ideas and new ways of promotion. We are heading towards an entirely new ecosystem, and people seem to be accepting our experiments. This itself points to growth. Established publishers are helping us. I personally go to publishers like Dey’s and Sahitya Samsad for advice.”
Writer Parimal Bhattacharya said if the feedback he has received from his publisher Ababhash is any indication, then things are indeed looking up. According to him, the response to most of his non-fiction books, particularly Shangrilar Khonje and Apur Desh (which he recently trans created as Field Notes from a Waterborne Land), has been “extremely good”.
“Most Bengali non-textbook publishers are small-scale and operate rather informally. The pandemic hit them badly. But many adapted to the changed situation rather quickly. After the first few months in 2021, when restrictions were eased, they switched to online marketing, some even with their own delivery network. Now a large percentage of readers prefer to browse and order books from their homes rather than making a trip to the congested College Street. This is a welcome change since Kolkata has almost no indie bookshop where Bengali readers can browse at leisure,” Mr. Bhattacharya said.

National Book Trust, India, under the Ministry of Education, has selected 75 authors under the Scholarship-cum-Mentorship Scheme for young authors below the age of 30 years. The contest was organized on the Theme ‘National Movement of India’ under the PM-YUVA Mentorship Scheme as part of Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav programmes.
Nearly 16000 entries in 22 Official languages and English were received from across the country including some from the Indian diaspora Community. Out of the 75 selected authors, 38 are males and 37 are females. Further, two are below 15 years, whereas there are 16 authors in the age group of 15-20 years, 32 fall in the age group of 21-25 years and 25 authors are in the age group of 26-30 years.

A publisher plays an important role in connecting authors with their target readers. They help writers to showcase their creative skills and help readers to benefit from their writings. Here’s what publishers say about their role in promoting reading habits.
“We try to reach out to as many children as possible”. At Amar Chitra Katha and Tinkle, we have always been aware of the educational impact our comic stories have on children, especially when it comes to improving one’s language skills. For years, both were seen as a great way to help children speak English better, and now, with our work in the regional space, we’re actively helping English-speaking Indian children understand their mother tongue better. Over the years, we have made our books available in 50 plus languages, going beyond the borders of India and working with languages like Mandarin, French and Bahasa among others. Right now, on our Amar Chitra Katha digital app, we have over a hundred titles available in Indian languages like Bengali, Gujarati, Marathi, Kannada, Tamil, Malayalam and Hindi, with more being added every day. Even as I write this down, Tinkle is actively tying up with regional partners in Assam and Kerala to make our back catalogue available in Assamese and Malayalam respectively. Beyond our books, we also actively conduct storytelling sessions and workshops in various languages, so that we can reach out to as many children as possible and let everyone take advantage of our massive bank of stories. Even though we are a primarily English publication, the strength of being multilingual is not lost on us!
-Kuriakose Saju Vaisian, Editor-in-Chief, Tinkle Comics
“Publishers are an enabler for education”. Publishers play a big role in supporting everyone by providing the right content for education. Through books, they provide a platform for writers and an opportunity for the readers to understand various topics.
Publishers provide knowledge and hence are an enabler for education and nurturing a tradition to read and learn. Publishers do take on new roles and participate with instructional communities and libraries. Having close interaction with our customers, we understand what the reader wants and promote content in various formats for the ease of the reader.
-Dr J S Chauhan, Director, Nitya Publications, Bhopal MP India

Print-on-Demand Makes Publishing Industry Environment Friendly and Cheaper
Indian Printer Publishers, 24th July 2021
One of the UK’s leading print-on-demand companies believes the service should be embraced by publishers wanting to drive down costs and lower their environmental footprint. Prime, part of the Precision Proco Group, has cornered the market in its fully automated print-on-demand system, which customers across various sectors have widely embraced. And now the company believes it is a model that should be adopted by the publishing world, allowing it not just to produce the books it needs and to be able to restock quickly if needed but also to ship directly to the customer. Jon Tolly, Chief Innovation Officer at Precision Proco Group, believes that waste could be slashed with no adverse effects to the customer by simply utilizing what print-on-demand has to offer.
“Despite being able to read on electronic devices, people still love and prefer the feeling of having a book in their hands”, said Jon. “But there’s no doubt that every step of the production process has an environmental cost, particularly if the book ends up in a pulper because it hasn’t sold.” “By using digitalization and technology, it means there’s the opportunity to take a completely different approach, replacing the outdated print-to-projection model with a print-to-possibility mind set.” Book publishers take a gamble on sales every time a book is brought to market, particularly from a first-time author with no real idea of how it will be received. “Using print-on-demand carries a far smaller financial risk, allowing publishers to print in smaller quantities, even with special embellishments to the cover or jackets, but with the option to quickly replenish the stock if it becomes a bestseller”, said Jon.
Print-on-demand also brings the opportunity for publishers to cash in on front list and back list titles, allowing them to be delivered to the reader. “It means that there will never be a time when anyone has to stay out of print ever again”, added Jon.