Understanding the India book market

Nielsen, a leading global provider of information and insights into what consumers watch and buy, was commissioned by The Association of Publishers in India (API) and the Federation of Indian Publishers (FIP) to produce a major new study: The India Book Market: Understanding the India Book Market – a comprehensive report on the India book market.

A first-of-its-kind release, this report looks at the fast-growing books market from the perspective of local and international publishers, retailers and book consumers. The aim of the report is to provide the Indian book publishing industry with greater insights into the market and their consumers, to enable the industry to meet the needs and demands of a well-educated nation that continues to grow.

Some of the facts that have come to light are very impressive – there are 9,000 publishers, over 21,000 retailers and 22 official languages and if you include regional dialects the total is 1,600. Literacy in India is rising rapidly, from 65 percent in 2001 to 74 percent in 2011 and it is predicted to reach 90 percent in 2020. India’s book market, currently worth Rs 261 billion, making it the sixth largest in the world and the second largest of the English language ones, is expected to touch Rs 739 billion by 2020, it says.