I don’t think it matters in the long run how much time paper has left. As long as content remains alive, we’re okay, says Urvashi Butalia
The one thing that can be said with certainty about the state of the publishing industry in India is that nothing can be said with any certainty. After 1972, when the government commissioned the National Centre for Applied Economic Research to do a survey of book publishing in India, there has been no systematic study, so we have no reliable stats at all.
Some people in publishing say the industry in India is valued at Rs 5,000 crore; others say Rs 7,000 crore (these are the figures most widely bandied about).
But there are others who have been suspicious, who do not know, who don’t have the wherewithal to find out, and who are confused. I’m not saying they haven’t reacted well, but that they have not reacted speedily. Perhaps because you really need to know what you’re getting into before you put your foot in. (We at Zubaan are an example of this. We’re not closed to these changes, we feel we have to implement them, but I don’t have the money to invest in finding out how to do it, so we have to learn as we go along.)
(This story appears in the 11 January, 2013 issue of Forbes India. To visit our Archives, click here.)