Delhi Book Store: spreading India’s knowledge legacy

Delhi Book Store, popularly known as DBS, is India’s leading provider of academic books from across the globe to library suppliers, academicians, researchers & students. Their commitment to customers is second to none, which is why they remain the most trusted partner to deliver the largest range of books. As a large independent distributor, Delhi Book Store (DBS) is almost unique in India. DBS’s company ethos is to be as flexible, reliable, and proactive in their relationships with publishing clients, and to be highly customer-oriented and professional in their dealings with customers. And since they work alongside publishers and customers from all four corners of the world, nothing could be more important!

DBS: the timeline

The saga of DBS started in 1947, when Jeewan Kumar Ahuja, a young man then, decided to move his family from Dera Ghazi Khan to Delhi. To support himself and his family, Jeewan started a small business, selling medical books on foot or on a bicycle, to young medical students. Soon, the growing sales figure prompted him to think of expanding his business and he opened a small shop in the busiest by-lane in Old Delhi, at Nai Sarak.

Soon, the shop became the Mecca for medical students, doctors, teachers and libraries of medical colleges and hospitals in India as well as all neighbouring countries. And, Delhi Book Store became a household name in the world of medical and non-medical books. The vision which was foreseen in 1947 by Jeewan Kumar Ahuja has been realised; today Delhi Book Store under the supervision of Vijay Ahuja and his son Prateek Ahuja, is Asia’s largest showroom of STM books, with a record 150,000 titles on display. Vijay joined the family business in 1974 while Prateek in 2014. In 2015, DBS hired an experienced sales and marketing team to take distribution to the next level.

Key products and services

From subjects like anaesthesia, medicine, cardiology, ultrasound surgery, obstgynae, radiology, orthopaedics, oncology, haematology, ophthalmology, laboratory, ENT and any subject into field of medical science, the bookstore is a veritable storehouse of medical information.

DBS is the sole authority of exclusive distribution of 600 premier titles of Springer and around 10,000 titles from other international publishers. It has the footprints of many elites like Arun Shourie, Dhanaraj Pillai, Deepak Kapoor, Dr. Naresh Trehan, Padma Bhushan Dr. Bindeshwar Pathak, Jogender Jha, etc.

DBS Imprints

DBS has also launched its own publishing house – DBS Imprints – with a clear vision of serving the nation with world-class top notch reference books of every academic stream. It is planning to publish 500 reference books of Handbook Series, of which 200 have already been published.

Committed to distribution

Prateek and Vijay AhujaDBS’s commitment to quality has always been core to its culture and the company is today counted as a leading name in distribution. It has been quick to embrace modern methods of distribution, while building on its heritage and outstanding history.

Even after almost seven decades of its inception, Delhi Book Store is the only distributor in India which has zero outstanding. As a policy, DBS has always purchased books globally against advance payment.

The Ahujas aim to nurture the coming generation to act as leaders for the promotion of the economic, industrial and cultural development of the country and to work towards fulfilling the dream of Prime minister Modi’s Make in India project. They have been at the forefront to spread awareness of super knowledge base of India and have taken a step forward to streamline India’s knowledge legacy.

(Adapted from Mail Today, Dated 05.02.2017.)

Unique selling points of DBS

• Asia’s largest showroom of STM books
• Two modern high rise facilities have 20,000 square feet of working area and 200,000 sq. feet of storage capacity.
• Over 1,50,000 titles on display.
• 5 floors of subject wise display.
• Store house of books by all foreign and Indian authors
• Around 10,000 orders per year.
• 75 experienced staff members to help customers and facilitate orders.
• Customer Service and Client Service departments deal with about 200 phone calls every day.
• Nationwide distribution and retail network.
• A regular participant at national and international book fairs.

Awards & Accolades

• Supernova award from Dr Harsh Vardhan, minister of science & technology and earth science, for best and vast collection of global books
• Outstanding Book Distributor Award by Afro-Asian Book Council
• Entry into Limca Book of Records 2009 as the largest distributor of medical books in India
• Life Time Achievement Award to Vijay Ahuja by the Federation of Publishers’ and Booksellers’ Association in India (FPBAI)