India is at just 52% internet penetration, meaning around 630 million Indians have not yet begun using the internet. But that’s to miss the exciting point that anywhere between 750 million to 800 million Indians are already online.
The Tamil Nadu Textbook and Educational Services Corporation has licensed 135 children’s books for translation into various Indian languages. These books, originally published under the ‘Illam Thalir Illakiya Thittam’ initiative, cover social themes and Tamil culture.
So far, 40 books have been translated into languages including Hindi, Assamese, Bodo, and Nepali, with Rajkamal Prakashan acquiring the Hindi rights. This initiative benefits numerous government schools across different educational levels.
Additionally, the first Chennai International Book Fair (CIBF) India meet was held to foster collaboration among Indian publishers. The event, which featured 13 publishers from diverse linguistic backgrounds, aimed to promote reading habits and facilitate the translation of international titles into Indian languages.
India is one of the most exciting publishing prospects on the planet, and not just for India-based publishers. International publishers have an exciting opportunity to engage with this market of over 1 billion people, and comparatively low print and digital retail prices can easily be made up for at the bottom line by sheer volume.
Digital is often dismissed as a waste of time, thanks to India being at just 52% internet penetration, meaning around 630 million Indians have not yet begun using the internet.
But that’s to miss the exciting point that anywhere between 750 million to 800 million Indians are already online.
And with advances in AI it means translation of titles between India’s myriad languages, and between Indian and international languages, is becoming every cheaper and easier.
This post first appeared in the TNPS LinkedIn newsfeed.
