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The National Book Trust (NBT), the apex body of Governmentof India, responsible for promotion of book cultureand reading in the country, is now embarking on digitizingits huge backlist. NBT has been publishing books in Indianlanguages and in English since its inception in 1957. Theorganization signed an agreement with the Bangalorebaseddigital content solutions provider, Ninestars InformationTechnologies, in early January 2014. According tothis, Ninestars will develop ebooks in English, Hindi and allIndian regional languages. The digitized books will beavailable on an e-store which Ninestars will develop forboth Android and iOS platforms.More devices With _Kobo_’s launch in India, in October2013, the market for e-reading devices has expanded. Kobois distributing its devices through 100 retail outlets in14 cities, including Crossword, Croma and WH Smith. Kindlee-readers are available both online and offline in over200 outlets.The fate of the government-backed low-cost Aakash tablethas become more uncertain now. The tender for themanufacture of the fourth generation of the device, Aakash4, was floated in January this year. Several interestedbidders were uncertain of maintaining the price level atthe stipulated Rs 2,500 ($41) without government support.The manufacturer of three generations of Aakash, Datawind,cited the volatility of the rupee as one of the challengesto keep the price at that level. In March, it was reportedthat most of the received bids had failed to meetthe technical specifications, and that the process might bescrapped altogether. A new process, if launched, wouldonly follow after the general elections (7 April – 12 May,2014).Online learning in schools has just started to boom in India,and “techno schools” are mushrooming in all major cities.As part of its plans for business integration, Repro, a leadingprinter and content services provider, based in Mumbai,has launched Rapples, a tablet-based learning solutionfor schools. The tablet comes with pre-loaded content,including textbooks and interactive media elements,as decided by the schools. Content is available from acloud-based platform. This new venture by Repro complementsits existing capabilities of content digitizationand conversion. The Rapples solution includes convertingall the books into digital books (e-books) and delivery oftexts for all the subjects through the dedicated tablet foreach student and their teachers. Apart from the e-books,Rapples will equip the schools with server and networkcapabilities, including wi-fi.Smartphone and mobile commerce gaining groundSmartphone sales in India increased by 166.8% in the lastquarter of 2013, making it the world’s fastest growingsmartphone market, according to Gartner. The InternetAnd Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) expects that thenumber of mobile internet users will touch 185 million byJune 2014, accounting for about 76% of the internet userbase in the country. The IAMAI also found that the medianprice of a handset had fallen 15 per cent from Rs 8,250($136) in 2012 to Rs 7,000 ($117) in 2013. This is attributedto the fact that manufacturers are trying to target the ‘valuefor money’ segment by offering more features at lowerprices.The result of this growth in smartphone sales and mobileinternet use is that more people are transacting onlinethrough the mobile phone. Flipkart reported in earlyMarch 2014 that it received 20% of orders from mobilephones. Although the majority of orders are for personalelectronics and lifestyle products, books and ebooks arealso in the mix.Smartphone device manufacturer, Samsung, has recentlylaunched Samsung Hub, an e-reading solution that willallow device users to access books easily. Samsung has aleadership position in smartphone market in India. It had38% market share of smartphone sales in 2013, and it controlled19% of overall phone market last year. Samsung hasbegun talking to publishers in India to place their booksin its Hub.Overview of book publishing in IndiaThe overall book market in India is at the cusp of majorchanges, but in the direction of growth. Fuelled by a growingeconomy, a burgeoning middle-class, and higher literacylevels, the expanding book market is preparing itselffor the next big curve—ebooks. With more capital beinginvested in the book and education industries, the Indianbook sector is a ground for experimentation and innovation.The book market in India is estimated to be in the rangeof $2 billion in value, according to industry sources. About18,000 to 19,000 publishers publish a volume of nearly80,000 to 90,000 books a year. After the US and UK, Indiaranks third in the world in English-language publishing.More than half of all print books published are in Hindi(26%) and English (24%), and the rest are books publishedin 22 other official languages of India.According to the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerceand Industry (FICCI), the publishing industry is73 The Global eBook Report