S. Chand Group

S. Chand Group is one of India's oldest and largest publishing and education services enterprise, founded in 1939 and based in New Delhi.

The publishing house prints books for primary as well as higher education like Engineering, Commerce etc. S. Chand publishers were the first in India to get ISO 9001:2000 certification. Books of this publishing house are distributed across India and South Asia, South-East Asia, Middle East and Africa.

The company operates from 110 offices and branches and employs a workforce of over 2000 employees.^[2] In 2013, Forbes India named it as the fastest growing player in the education sector, and the group claims to sell 15000 titles amongst 20 million students spread across 40,000 schools and educational institutes.^[3]

History

S. Chand was founded in 1939 at an insignificant by-lane of Chandni Chowk by Shyam Lal Gupta as a part of a nationalistic effort to provide a voice to Indian authors and educate India’s population.^[4]

Publishing in India was at the time dominated by the British, and most of the books and magazines were imported from England.^[5] Shyam Lal Gupta managed to enter the market by publishing two books at a lower cost than the prevailing rates. The first textbook to be published by S. Chand was a 'Textbook of Physical Chemistry' by Prof. Bahl & Tuli. The revised edition of the book is still in the market. ^[6]

In 1960, S. Chand established its own printing press which made a huge difference in quality and timely delivery.

Monotype Composing Machine used in 1961

Reaping the benefits, the company continued investing in technology, moving from composition and offset printing to the Computer plate printing.

Planenta Super Variant Machines

^[7]

By this time, Shyam Lal Gupta had gathered fame as one of the pioneers of the Indian Publishing industry. He was awarded the ‘Padam Shree’ by the Indian Government in 1969 and was elected to the Rajya Sabha from Bihar in 1972.^[8] He was also one of the founder members of the Federation of Indian Publishers and its first president.^[9]

In 1976, S.Chand entered the school textbook market, a segment that it has since come to dominate. Shyam Lal Gupta was initially reluctant because of the sectors long-credit policies but was persuaded otherwise efforts by his son Ravindra Kumar Gupta. In the 1980s, the company also published comic books like Chitra Bharti Kathamala, a series that enjoyed moderate success and was fairly popular before being discontinued in the latter part of the decade.

In 2006, S. Chand became the first publishers in India to be certified for ISO 9001:2000 ^[10]

Education Services and Digital Content

In recent years, the group has diversified its offering after stating its aim to be a ‘knowledge corporation’. These efforts are led by its subsidiary DS Digital.

DS Digital runs Destination Success programme, a complete education programme integrated with technology for schools.^[11] It also offers the S.Chand Intellitab, a tablet-based learning solution.^[12]

One of its notable recent initiatives in this regard is the programme RISE, developed by a joint venture with Houghton Mifflin Harcourt called S.Chand Hardcourt. RISE claims to offer an ‘immersive learning environment’ that combines technology and the latest best practices in education. Under the same programme, a series of pre-schools called RISEKIDS have been launched in various parts of New Delhi.^[13]

Funding

In 2012, S. Chand became the first Indian publisher to raise funding from a private equity firm with Everstone capital acquiring a 31% stake, citing their ‘Entrepreneurial leadership’ as the major reason for the investment.

In 2015, it raised another $27 million from Everstone and IFC in an effort to scale up its operations in the Digital Space.^[14]

Corporate Social Responsibility

Shyam Lal Charitable Trust was established by the Shri Shyam Lal Gupta into which the royalties of the company’s 6 best selling books was divested for furthering the cause of education and medicine. The fund established the Shyam Lal College under the University of Delhi in 1964.^[15]

Awards

• Federation of Indian Publishers Award
• Book Sellers Best Publisher
• Dadabhai Naoroji Millennium Award
• Knowledge Pillar of India Honour Award
• The founder of the company, Shyam Lal Gupta, received the Padamshree award in 1969.

Notable Publications

S. Chand uses authors who are well known in their subject areas, including O.P. Malhotra. Since its inception, it has worked with more than 1200 authors and has delivered more than 7000 titles for students in schools, colleges, universities and other higher education institutes across India and other countries.^[16]

• Quantitative Aptitude (R.S.Aggarwal)^[17]
• Strength of Materials (R.S. Khurmi)
• Principles of Physics (V. K. Mehta)
• Advanced Inorganic Chemistry (R. D. Madan)
• Mathematics Today for ICSE (O. P. Malhotra, S. K. Gupta, Anubhuti Gangal)
• Language of Chemistry or Chemical Equations (G. D. Tuli, P. L. Soni)
• Wren and Martin High School English Grammar& Composition
• Verbal & Non-Verbal Reasoning (R. S. Aggarwal)
• Atomic Physics
• Nuclear Physics
• Indian Economics
• Data Structures & Algorithm
• Organisational Behaviour
• Electrical Technology (BL Theraja)

References^[17]