Moving from the rarified world of academia to the publishing business was tough for Dr N. Subrahmanyam, but the managing director of Tata McGraw-Hill has made light of the dificult transition to help guide the company to greater heights.

In this interview with Christabelle Noronha, Dr Subrahmanyam highlights the companys operations and articulates the need for tougher regulations to curb the menace of publishing piracy in India.

tata.com: Tata McGraw-Hill has been in the business of publishing for the past 32 years. How many books has the company published so far, and what kind of books?
N. Subrahmanyam: Our thrust areas of publishing are science, technology, computing, business and economics. We do not publish fiction, paperbacks or general trade books. We classify what we publish into educational and professional books. Educational books are basically textbooks on university or college techniques, and professional books are those used by practising managers: CEOs, doctors, chartered accountants, architects, etc.

Within these higher-end educational and professional books, we have a further classification. In the educational category we classify books into engineering, computer, business and economics. In the professional category the books are classified as business and general reference, science, technology, medicine and computing.

Our revenues come from three main sources: publishing, which brings in about 45 per cent of our total revenue, reprints of McGraw-Hill books, and selling McGraw-Hill publications.

Tata McGraw-Hill does indigenous publishing of books authored by Indians and India-authored books. There are Americans who publish books with us, and Australians too. Annually we publish anywhere between 120 to 130 books. Right now our list has about 900 published books, and reprints could be about 1,500 or so.

tata.com: Does McGraw-Hill import books published by Tata McGraw-Hill?
NS: That depends on whether McGraw Hill finds the forecast and a particular title interesting. When it does, the company imports between 500 and 1,000 copies. If the demand is larger, McGraw-Hill reprints the books, sometimes with adaptations and sometimes as they are. Also, there are books originally published here that are reprinted by McGraw-Hill in the United States. If the quantity is small, say 100 to 200 copies, it imports them from here.

tata.com: Piracy seems to be a major issue in publishing. What are your views on how to address this problem?
NS: Piracy is an issue that goes beyond geographical borders. Till recently it was, by and large, a problem faced by fiction and paperback publishers. But over the last three to four years a lot of education books have been pirated.

In India piracy operates in a well-organised system. The pirate or the fixer, as he is called, doesnt have any office. He creates a mechanism to find out which books are moving fast, in what discipline, and at what price. He then arranges to print these books, sometimes in a well-known press.

A pirate has deals with booksellers in the states where there is demand for these books. He then delivers these books to them without any invoice. All transactions are in cash and there is no written document from which you can find out the source of the pirated book.

We come to know that our books are being pirated when our sales people cover a territory, university or college. They meet booksellers who sells pirated books, but the booksellers dont know where the books are coming from, or they wont reveal the source of their supply. Sometimes pirated books are mixed with the original books of the publisher.

A large number of pirated books are from the Tata McGraw-Hill stable. When we get information that pirated copies of our books are being sold at a particular store, we tell the police and have raids conducted there. We have been on raids at retail bookshops in Mumbai, Pune, Bangalore, Ahmedabad and Delhi.

The police force, for its part, pursues the matter to a certain extent, but we are just not able to get to the root of the problem, which is the supplier. Its very hard because this is an organised racket.

tata.com: Has the government been helpful in curbing piracy?
NS: The Indian Copyright Act was amended in 1986; that was a major help. Till then piracy was not a cognisable offence. Now its simpler to catch the pirate. Our hands have been strengthened, but theres a tremendous amount of ignorance in the police force about what copyright is, and that it needs protection. And theres a lot of ignorance in society too.

The Federation of Publishers and Booksellers of India has combated piracy by conducting seminars at various places, but we are talking about a population of one billion in a huge geographical spread. A lot more needs to be done. First, you have to create awareness; second, there has to considerably more action from the government side in helping publishers control piracy.

Today anybody can go to any printing press with any book and say he wants 1,000 copies. The press will print it without asking any questions, as long as he pays for it. My personal feeling on this is that printing presses should be members of the Master Printers Association of India. As MPAI members, these presses should ask clients for proof that they have the copyright to the material they want published.

This can be made mandatory if the government stipulates that MPAI members should have written proof about the copyright of the books they are printing. I feel this can definitely be done.

tata.com: What about photocopying books?
NS: Photocopying, if it is done with a few pages of a book or something like that, is understandable. But there are several commercial photocopying operations going on. For instance, in August 2001 there was a raid on Jawahar Book Depot in Delhi, where there was something like 12 huge photocopiers at work copying books. Then there was a similar operation being run by a book depot in the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (the photocopied books were stored in the Institutes basement).

The magnitude of these operations was stupendous. There is a world-class medical publishing company called Harcourt General. They have some surgery books four volumes and costing about Rs 19,000 that this printer (in the Institute) was selling for Rs 8,000. Multiple sets of these four volumes were found; this is organised piracy.

tata.com: What is the solution?
NS: I think the solution lies in massive publicity campaigns about copyright, and in educating students and the general public. The University Grants Commission can play a big role here and so can the Human Resources Ministry. They can decide not to buy pirated books, and not to photocopy books without permission.

From my long years in this business I have come to realise that even literate society does not really know the difference between publishing and printing. Printing is a skill; publishing requires core competence. In publishing you have got to make sure that what you are publishing is completely infringement free and totally original in content.

At Tata McGraw-Hill, before we sign a publishing agreement, we take a declaration from the author that he has not used information from any copyrighted sources. If he has used such information, he will take the appropriate permission. Thats an important aspect, but there can be other complications when it comes to writing, no matter how careful the publisher is.

tata.com: What are the constraints that publishers in India face compared with their counterparts abroad?
NS: I wouldnt say constraints, but if you compare the publishing business in the US with that in India, the awareness there about issues such as copyright is high. Secondly, the implementation processes and the legal system there are much faster. Thirdly, the general population is, by and large, law abiding.

tata.com: You are an academician by profession, with a doctorate in biology. Is there a common thread linking academia and publishing?
NS: The only thing in common is that you deal with knowledge and intellectual content. Publishing is a business; academic life is very different.

tata.com: Was it an easy shift from academics to publishing?
NS: No, it wasnt easy at all. When you are in academics you are completely keyed into the subject that you are teaching or researching. To go from that kind of atmosphere to business is very hard. It was a tough transition; I had to change myself in several ways.