Obituary: Anand Bhushan

(August 2, 1946 – September 17, 2015)
Anand Bhushan, a law and commerce graduate from the University of Delhi, entered the family business of publishing in the late sixties at the young age of 21, at a time when the publishing industry was dominated by foreign publishers. Under his stewardship, Pitambar, undertook the challenge of publishing quality school books at reasonable prices in the wake of stiff competition from the foreign publishers. It was his vision to make educational books accessible to the millions of children who had the passion but not the means to afford education. Gradually the company became a household name in the arena of educational publishing. Anand not only made inroads in the Indian market but was also one of the pioneering visionaries to see a market for Indian books in the Gulf countries. From his first visit to the Middle East Book Fair in the early eighties, the Gulf is today one of the biggest overseas market for Indian books.

Anand was professionally very active in both national and international publishing. He held coveted positions in professional bodies such as Federation of Indian Publishers and the Asia Pacific Publishers Association. Not only had he been the president of FIP for four terms, he was also the serving Secretary General of the Indian Reprographic Rights Organisation. He was awarded by many prestigious organisations of the likes of FIP, FEPI and the Indo-Russian Cultural Society.

He was a man of great ideals and vision for the future of publishing and copyrights industry. Those who knew him will always remember him as a wonderful human being who always had a smile on his face and was always willing to help. His untimely demise has left a huge vacuum in the Indian publishing industry, one that can never be filled.