Prayatna

Infosys and Penguin tie up in a publishing alliance

A publishing alliance between Infosys and Penguin was announced during Penguin CEO John Makinson's recent visit to Chennai. Penguin and Pearson Education and the Financial Times businesses are part of the Pearson Group. Various news reports on John Makinson's visit provide an interesting perspective on Pearson Group's Indian operations.

• Infosys and UK based Penguin group, a Pearson company, have tied up for publishing the books authored by Infosys. In an interview to Deccan Chronicle, John Makinson, chairman and chief executive of the Penguin Group said that both the companies signed an MoU a couple of months ago and the first book with the Infosys imprint would be released by June, this year. "Infosys will write books on computers and management and we will print the books," Makinson said. (Deccan Chronicle) Pearson Education has similar imprint alliances with other organisations like Cisco Press, and Macromedia Press and Adobe Press (both part of Pearson's Peachpit imprint), to publish technology titles targeting professionals and students, and Wharton School Publishing to publish business-related titles.
• Pearson Education set up its Chennai Publishing Programme in December 2004 with a full-fledged editorial team and has brought out 38 titles for the Tamil Nadu curriculum in the first year. Chennai was chosen as the site for the project due to its academic and editorial talent and it's position as a technology centre, said Mr Makinson. (The Hindu)
• Makinson said the company is outsourcing the digitisation of its content to India. Pearson's investment in this initiative amounts to $35 million, he said. Half goes into technology support and development for Pearson in general while the rest is used to develop the Pearson Education business, particularly for the US. The total investment in India is a bit difficult to aggregate as the company considers it business by business, he added. (Sify)
• Makinson said "We will work aggressively in the educational publication sector by making available original text material. Adaptations of the existing content as well as new content both for schools and the higher education segment will be our focus." (NewKerala.com)
• Penguin India has launched a business books imprint called Portfolio. "There's an enormous appetite in India for books about business," said John Makinson, Chairman and Chief Executive, Penguin Group. The imprint was launched in the US 2-3 years ago, and "seems to be relevant to the market in India," he said, speaking to Business Line. Penguin will publish books sourced from other Penguin territories but the main focus will be on Indian books for the Indian market. There are about 30-35 titles lined up, on business management, successes and failures. (Sify)
• Penguin India would start publishing in Malayalam this year in addition to their 8 Hindi titles and 2 Marathi titles published last year. They plan to publish 180 English language titles and 70 regional language titles over the coming year. The books will be a combination of old, new and translations. (Sify)
• At Rs 50 crore (£6.25 million), Penguin India's contribution to the publisher's worldwide revenue of £1 billion is small (partly because book prices in the country are very low) but then, "Pearson is also making money in India," Makinson said. (Sify)
  David Davidar had indicated back in 2003 that Penguin India's annual revenues were in the region of Rs. 100 crores - they seem to only about half as much now.
• "We will strengthen our ties with Business Standard and increase out interest in it to 25 percent," Makinson said. (NewKerala.com)
  Pearson currently has a 13.85% stake in Business Standard. Kotak Mahindra Group and Great Eastern Shipping are the other major investors in Business Standard.

Govt. of Kerala lobbies for the U.S. nursing qualification exam to be offered in India

Rediff had reported sometime back (Sep 2005) on the lucrative career awaiting Indian nurses in USA, where the demand for nurses is high and a majority of the serving nurses in the US are old and likely to retire in the next 5-10 years.

Medindia.com now reports (Feb 02, 2006) that as a result of the Government of Kerala's lobbying, the U.S. nursing qualification exam can now be taken in India.

India has now become a testing ground for nurses who are bound to the US. This follows intense lobbying on the part if the Indian State Government of Kerala. The National Council Licensure Examination (NCLEX) may be conducted in Kerala by the US. The NCSBN is a not-for-profit organization, whose membership comprises the boards of nursing in the 50 states, the District of Columbia and five US territories namely American Samoa, Guam, Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.

It is interesting that a state government rather than the central government has been lobbying with a foreign country in this case.

A Sify report (Feb 03, 2006) adds,

Registered nurses are required to pass the NCLEX-RN (registered nurse) to obtain a nursing licence in the US. Till last year, the examination was available only in the US. India's selection is expected to help tens of thousands of aspirant nurses to take the board examination at home without having to fly out just for this purpose. The exact location(s) for centres within each country is yet to be determined. No schedule of implementation has been set either.

Because passing the NCLEX is usually the final step in the nurse licensure process, the number of people passing ("pass rate") is a good indicator of how many new nurses are entering the profession in the US. The Philippines topped the list in terms of aggregate numbers in 2005, followed by India, South Korea, Canada, Cuba and Nigeria. The `home advantage' enjoyed by the US-educated applicants was evidence in the margin (almost two to one).

How TV changed the movie industry and how Internet could change the book publishing industry

A comment on a post about the impact of the Internet on the publishing industry makes an neat analogy. It suggests that the Internet will probably change the book publishing industry the way TV changed the old movie industry.

The old movie studio system is similar to the current publishing houses. Centralized production and promotion. The studios died and currently, the big movie stars have to hire their own staff of promotion people to support their celebrity. It used to be that this was handled by the studio. The internet offers the opportunity to decentralize the process. Independent marketers, writers, editors working a project like an actor or director for a movie. Better get a good agent quick.

I had earlier written about how Amazon could do an eBay for book publishing.

Rather than relying on publishers who decide what to publish and take on the risks of publishing a title, a new entity could help authors by setting up an eBay like portal for publishing tasks. Authors could then take on the risks of publishing (keeping all the rewards to themselves), and outsource all the actual tasks of a publishing house to editors, printers, distributors, marketing agents etc. who would all bid for jobs by various authors, through the eBay like portal.

What happened to the old movie houses is very likely to happen to the publishing business over time. Lightning Source (printing on demand) and Ingram (distribution) already offer to help authors take on the publishing risks. What is needed is a means for authors to find editorial and marketing help at a price they can afford.

On a related note, the Freakonomics Blog discusses if the Internet is the Publishing Industry’s Best Friend.