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.

Comments

[Rahul]

I have heard Infosys is exploring in publishing services in India. If this is true, this would lead to a good competition to Indian Publishing Service providers.

[anil]

If this is true then there is a chances of good competition among publishing companies but also it will eradicate some of the companies monopoly and definitely it will be good for employees who are still searching for good opportunity.