Navneet Publications seeks subsidy on paper

The government should introduce subsidy on paper used by educational publishers in order to make educational books affordable to the student community, the director (marketing) of Navneet Publications (India) Ltd, Jitendra Gala, said here on Saturday.

Gala, whose family controls the publishing house, said that this demand was raised by the Federation of All India Publishers several years back but no action was taken by the government.

Education is a social issue and the government too gives it top priority. If publishers get paper at subsidised rates, it would go a long way in spreading education, he said.

Gala said that education publishing is not recognised as an industry by the government and hence it remains deprived of several facilities.

The unavailability of subsidy is one; the other is unavailability of import duty relief on printing machines.

Educational publishers cannot compromise on the quality of their printing because the books have to be attractive enough for children to read them or write on them.

Hence, most of the machinery is imported. A reduction in import duty would also draw the prices down and eventually create an education-friendly atmosphere, he said.

Navneet's stationery division has been exporting exercise books to the developed markets such as the US and Europe.

Last year, 50 per cent of its exports revenue of Rs 50 crore came from the US.

The target is to make Rs 100 crore exports to the US alone in the next two years, Gala said. Navneet, he said, is the largest exporter of copy books from the country.

Exporting to a developed country like the US is itself a big achievement. This has become possible due to the eco-friendly paper used by Navneet, he said.

The paper is made from bagasse at its joint venture mill in Chennai. Though the books cost more, they are still cheaper in the US compared with its domestic producers, he said.

Even in the promotion of eco-friendly paper, the Indian government's attitude is of indifference, Gala said. The US, on the other hand, has made this paper's use mandatory, he said.

Navneet made a net profit of Rs 24.5 crore on a turnover of Rs 300 crore last financial year.

The educational publication division accounted for Rs 150 crore, the stationery division, Rs 50 crore, exports, Rs 50 crore and the rest was made up by general items.

It also has a separate division which makes educational CDs. The publication division has over 3,500 publications.

Navneet caters to state education board students of Maharashtra, Gujarat and Goa and is in the process of launching into Madhya Pradesh. It also has books based on CBSE/ ICSE curriculum. In CD-ROMs, Navneet has nearly 500 titles, he said.

Navneet has a 56 per cent market share in education books in Maharashtra and Gujarat, Gala said.

It is the biggest player in the industry; the others are local publishers who mostly cater to localised markets, he said. Navneet, as such, has no competition.

"Book making is creative work. You need good and experienced writers who have been in academics for long. We have 500 writers which shows the seriousness with which we treat writing," Gala said.

He was in the city in connection with opening of the third 'Navneet Bhavan' of his company in the country.

A Rs two crore building, the Bhavan which has been constructed on a 7,000 square feet plot, will be the office cum showroom of the leading educational books publisher. Other two Navneet Bhavans are at Mumbai and Ahmedabad.