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New Delhi, Dec. 11 “India is one of the fastest growing markets in Asia, and in three-four years it should be the number one market in Asia,” said Mr Frank Wong, President, Scholastic Asia. Scholastic, the world’s largest publisher of children’s books, also has resource books for teachers. It is introducing textbooks, for the first time, starting with English and Math curriculum textbooks for up to Class V.

Declining to share revenues, Mr Frank Wong said business is growing at 25-30 per cent in India and is definitely a “priority market” for Scholastic. The company has 200 employees here and claims to reach 5,000 schools. “We are also looking to leverage the digital medium through the Scholastic India Web site. We may also come up with some e-books,” said Mr Wong.

Scholastic also offers multimedia technology packages such as BookFlix where video and animation lead to the printed word, making reading fun for children. For teachers and schools it has a Scholastic Reading Inventory which measures “comprehensive reading” or how much children get of what they read.

Though the neighbourhood bookshop will continue to be a key customer, the retail environment is changing very fast. According to Mr Wong, booklovers who have been negotiating narrow passages between tilting bookshelves, can look forward to more bookshops that let them lounge around sipping tea while they choose their books.

For Scholastic, the challenge here is the highly fragmented geography and the logistical challenge that the spread poses. Pricing is also an issue in the Indian market, he said. The company has been tightening its own costs against the rising cost of paper, and says it will only raise prices as a last resort.

But Scholastic isn’t purely about commerce, it also pursues a serious commitment to encourage reading, by making reading and education more fun. It participated in a unique travelling roadshow in Bihar recently, where books were taken to schools allowing buyers to choose and buy their books in a more transparent manner.

It also organised a ‘One Nation Reading Together’ in end November, when it claims three lakh children in schools across the country celebrated reading together.

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