The western world may be experiencing the worst economic slump in half a century, but the recessionary winds blowing over the US have proved a boon for the Indian publishing industry, particularly firms specialising in scientific, technical and medical (STM) publishing, typesetting and xml conversion services. Their revenue, which aggregated $440 million (Rs.2,126 crore) in 2006, is slated to rise to $1.46 billion (Rs.7,055 crore) by 2010. If the demand for editorial and design content development picks up, their revenue estimates will go further north as demonstrated by the experience of the Delhi-based Q2A Media (estb. 2000, sales: Rs.20 crore in 2008-2009), which recently inked a contract with Teaching Strategies, a well-known American educational publishing company (annual sales revenue: $13 million or Rs.65 crore) to develop content for their new pre-school learning programmes.
The Delhi-based firm will also develop curriculum-linked fiction and non-fiction books in multiple languages for pre-schools in India. Apart from books, Q2A Media’s early learning curriculum for pre-schools will also include e-books and material for interactive whiteboards. This curriculum will be launched publicly in mid-2010. “Our excellent track record of developing high-quality content for the international education market prompted Teaching Strategies to choose us to partner with them to develop this programme,” says Sudhir Singh Dungarpur, president and CEO of Q2A Media which has designed educational content for international publishers including Disney Learning, Harcourt Education, Oxford University Press, HarperCollins, The Watts Publishing Group and Robert Frederick.
The prospect of entering the unexplored pre-school (0-5 years) market excites Dungarpur. “India lacks content and equipment for the pre-school sector and we intend to fill this lacuna. Brain development is critical in the first five years of a child’s lifespan. Investing in education, therefore, must start from the word go,” he declares.
Agraduate of St. Stephen’s College with an MBA from International Management Institute, Delhi, Dungarpur, who took charge as chief executive of Q2A Media in 2007, brings a wealth of experience to his new job. In 2001, immediately after graduation, he signed up with Cymbal Software India Pvt. Ltd and helped build a $50 million (Rs.250 crore) high-end consulting led business model. This was followed by a stint in Mumbai-based Patni Computer Systems as vice president, communications, media and enter-tainment. In August 2007 he quit to take charge of Q2A Media.
“Our goal is to evolve into the most respected and largest learning-based educational content provider worldwide. To this end we intend to expand out theatre of operations to cover China and the Middle East countries in the near future,” says Dungarpur.
Autar Nehru ( Delhi)