Literary giant Bloomsbury to start academic publishing in India

Bloomsbury will begin academic publishing in India with the first title all set to come out this year. R Chandra Sekhar has joined as publisher to start the publishing programme. The first title is "Time, Doubt and Wonder in Humanities" by Prasanta Chakravarty. According to Jonathan Glasspool, managing director of Bloomsbury Academic & Professional, this venture is part of Bloomsbury's strategy to balance its consumer publishing interests with global academic and professional revenues.

"Bloomsbury's Academic Division has grown rapidly over the past decade, and publishes internationally from Oxford, London and New York. Bloomsbury India has established itself as a leading trade publisher in India since it was established six years ago," he said. Rajiv Beri, Managing Director of Bloomsbury India, said the aim will be to publish high-quality content in humanities and social sciences with authorship from centers of academic and scholarly excellence in India.

"We have for the past few years been actively marketing and selling the large and diverse academic lists of Bloomsbury UK. The results have encouraged us to launch an India origin academic publishing programme," he said. "The list will have international appeal and will reach all parts of the world. We are indeed delighted with this significant initiative and look forward to contributing to dissemination of India origin high quality, meaningful and fresh academic content," he added. Bloomsbury Academic & Professional division specializes in the humanities, social sciences, visual arts, law and tax.

(With inputs from agencies.)