Penguin Random House India has acquired Hind Pocket Books, one of the oldest and best-known Hindi-language publishers in the country.
PRH sees the purchase as another step in building PRH India’s presence in local-language publishing. The company entered that part of the market in 2005, when Penguin began its Hindi publishing program. PRH has since built a significant catalogue of acclaimed titles.
Focusing mainly on paperbacks in Hindi and Urdu, Hind Pocket Books’ authors include several who have won major awards, including the Noble Prize and Sahitya Akadmei award.
Nandan Jha, senior v-p PRH India, will expand his role to add to his portfolio building the Indian language publishing program, in addition to heading sales and product for the company. Vaishali Mathur, previously responsible for Indian language publishing and rights for PRH India will now become editor-in-chief of Hind Pocket Books, and will also continue to build her English language publishing program.
PRH CEO Markus Dohle said the Hind Pocket Books purchase is keeping with the company’s strategy of international growth. “Our operations in India have been a success story for us, and this acquisition represents our commitment to expand our local-language publishing as we continue to implement our global strategy of growing in our key markets such as Indi, he said in a statement, Dohle said in a statement.
