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Industry brief · Publishing

Publishing in India, around our guest's children's books

Vinayak Varma is an independent author and illustrator of children's books in India, and talks on Building Real about creativity and the AI challenge. This brief covers the publishing world around his work in India: the book market, what tracked sales and reading surveys show, and the copyright rules being written for AI.

India
Checked 20 Oct 2026 · every figure linked to its source · next review Jan 2027

01At a glance

5,500+

non-academic titles from more than 200 publishers in 23 languages on Rashtriya e-Pustakalaya, the National Book Trust's national digital library for children, as of December 20251.

Titles hosted, not readers.
60,000

children's stories in 361 languages on Pratham Books' StoryWeaver platform, around 60% of them in underserved languages2.

One non-profit publisher's platform. Counts include translations and versions.
23.4%

of Std III children in rural government schools could read at least a Std II level text in ASER 2024, up from 16.3% in 2022 and the highest since the survey began3.

Rural India only. ASER is a household survey.
51.3%

of the rural government primary schools ASER visited in 2024 had students using books other than textbooks, up from 36.9% in 20184.

What surveyors saw in schools. Not a measure of book buying.

02How AI is reshaping it

Authors and illustrators: the data is from the UK and US

  • UK survey. In a 2024 Society of Authors survey of its UK members, 26% of illustrators said they had already lost work to AI, and 37% said illustrated work had fallen in value because of generative AI products5.
  • US incomes. The Authors Guild's 2023 survey of 5,699 published US authors found median book income of $10,000 for full-time authors in 2022 and $2,000 for all authors6.
UK and US data, self-reported. We found no comparable survey of Indian authors or illustrators. Our design and creative brief covers illustration and AI in more detail.

Publishing platforms write their own AI rules

  • Disclosure. Amazon's Kindle Direct Publishing requires authors to disclose AI-generated text, images or translations when publishing, but not AI-assisted content they wrote or created themselves7.
  • Volume cap. In September 2023 Amazon KDP confirmed to the Authors Guild a limit of three new self-published titles per day, which it said was meant 'to help protect against abuse' and may be adjusted8.
KDP's disclosure goes to Amazon, not to readers. These are one company's policies, not law.

03Where the money is moving

The book market, by one industry report

  • Market size. A Federation of Indian Publishers report prepared by NielsenIQ BookData estimates India's book publishing market at about Rs 1.08 lakh crore in 2024–25 and projects Rs 2 lakh crore by 2030–319.
  • Print and digital. The same report, released in September 2026, estimates India's print-book market at Rs 95,816 crore and digital publishing at Rs 7,048 crore10.
  • Publishers. According to the report, India has more than 26,000 publishers11.
  • Jobs. It estimates employment in printing and book publishing in India at 3,75,534 in 202512.
We read this report through press coverage, not the report itself. The market estimate covers all books, including school, higher-education, trade and scholarly titles, not children's books alone. The print and digital estimates carry no year and are not added together here.

Audio: one large round

  • Funding. Kuku FM, an Indian audio and video content platform, raised US$85 million in October 2025 in a round led by Granite Asia13.
  • Revenue. Kuku FM's operating revenue rose to Rs 242 crore in FY25 from Rs 88 crore in FY24, according to its Registrar of Companies filings as reported by Entrackr14.
  • Subscribers. Kuku's CEO Lal Chand Bisu cited over 10 million paid subscribers at the October 2025 raise15.
Kuku is not a book publisher: audiobooks sit beside shows and micro-dramas in its apps. The subscriber figure is the CEO's claim and covers Kuku's apps, not audiobooks alone. We found no 2025–26 funding round for an Indian book publisher.

04Readers, sales and libraries

Tracked print sales

  • Revenue. Tracked print book sales in India rose 20.7% by revenue in 2025, putting India among the high-growth markets in NielsenIQ BookData and GfK point-of-sale data for 19 territories16.
  • Prices. Print book prices tracked by NielsenIQ BookData and GfK in India rose 1.8% in 2025, compared with 8.1% the year before17.
  • Children's books, globally. In NielsenIQ BookData and GfK's 2025 data for 19 markets, children's and young-adult books recorded revenue growth in three quarters of the markets analysed18.

Share of India's trade book sales

Adult non-fiction
51%
Adult fiction
25%
Children's and young adult
24%

Print, e-books and audiobooks, from a January 2026 NielsenIQ BookData article on Indian readers, which does not state the period covered19.

Point-of-sale panels cover part of retail. They are a different source and scope from the industry report's market estimate above, and neither explains the other. The trade share is a share, not a market size.

Reading in rural schools

  • Std III. ASER 2024 found 23.4% of Std III children in rural government schools could read at least a Std II level text, up from 16.3% in 2022 and the highest since the survey began3.
  • Std V. ASER 2024 found 44.8% of Std V government-school children in rural India could read a Std II level text, against 59.3% in private schools20.
  • Books in class. In the rural government primary schools ASER visited, the share where students were using books other than textbooks rose from 36.9% in 2018 to 43.9% in 2022 and 51.3% in 20244.
ASER covers rural India only. It measures reading levels and what surveyors saw in schools, not book buying, and this brief does not link the gains to any library or publisher.

Libraries and open platforms

  • Public. Rashtriya e-Pustakalaya, the national digital library for children developed by the National Book Trust under the Ministry of Education, hosted over 5,500 non-academic titles from more than 200 publishers in 23 languages as of December 20251.
  • Non-profit. Pratham Books' StoryWeaver platform hosts about 60,000 children's stories in 361 languages, around 60% of them in underserved languages2.
  • Output. In 2023–24 Pratham Books published 20 original books and 10 wall books in 11 languages, and created 500 books across 11 languages for its Fidelity Project21.
Titles hosted and stories published, not readers.

05Rules, courts and public programmes

  1. Ministry of Education. The Department of School Education signed an agreement with the National Book Trust in June 2024 to build Rashtriya e-Pustakalaya, with its books grouped into four age groups as per NEP 202022.
  2. Delhi High Court. In January 2025 the Federation of Indian Publishers, whose members include Penguin Random House, Oxford University Press, Bloomsbury and Rupa, applied to intervene in ANI's suit against OpenAI, arguing that AI chatbots' use of unlicensed extracts to produce summaries could hurt book sales23. It was one of three interveners supporting ANI, alongside DNPA and the Indian Music Industry24. Its argument is a litigant's claim, not a finding.
  3. DPIIT. A DPIIT committee's December 2025 working paper proposes, by majority view, a mandatory blanket licence letting AI developers train on all lawfully accessed copyrighted works, with no option for rights holders to withhold them, in return for royalties set by a government-appointed committee as a share of AI-system revenue25. Nasscom dissented, arguing instead for text-and-data-mining for training with a machine-readable opt-out for publicly accessible content26. The paper deferred the copyrightability and authorship of AI-generated outputs, moral rights and liability for infringing outputs to a Part 227. It is a proposal for consultation, not law.
  4. National Book Trust. NBT director Yuvraj Malik said the New Delhi World Book Fair, held at Bharat Mandapam from 10 to 18 January 2026, recorded around two million in footfall over its nine days28. All About Book Publishing reported that nearly 3,000 stalls were set up by more than 1,000 publishers from India and overseas, with over 50 countries taking part29. Footfall counts visits, not unique visitors.
  5. IT ministry. India's IT ministry notified IT Rules amendments on 10 February 2026, in force from 20 February 2026, under which online intermediaries must ensure permitted synthetically generated (AI) content is prominently labelled and carries permanent metadata or provenance markers30. The duties fall on online intermediaries, not on authors, illustrators or publishers.
  6. Delhi High Court. On 24 July 2026 a single judge of the Delhi High Court refused news agency ANI an interim injunction against OpenAI, finding prima facie that storing ANI's content fell within fair dealing under Section 52(1)(a) and that ChatGPT's outputs were not substantially similar to ANI's works31. It is an interim order, not a final judgment, and ANI has appealed. The case concerns news text, not books.

06Trends to watch

Tracked sales up, price rises slower

Tracked print book sales in India rose 20.7% by revenue in 2025, in NielsenIQ BookData and GfK point-of-sale data16. Tracked print prices rose 1.8% in 2025, against 8.1% the year before17. Both come from panels that cover part of retail.

Children's books hold a large share of trade sales

A NielsenIQ BookData article put children's and young-adult books at 24% of India's total trade book sales, without stating the period covered19. Across 19 markets in 2025, children's and young-adult books grew revenue in three quarters of the markets analysed18. That second figure is global and says nothing about India on its own.

Who may train AI on books is undecided

A DPIIT committee has proposed a mandatory licence for AI training, with no option for rights holders to withhold their works25, and Nasscom dissented26. The Federation of Indian Publishers applied to intervene in ANI's suit against OpenAI, arguing that AI chatbots' use of unlicensed extracts to produce summaries could hurt book sales23. An interim order in July 2026 went OpenAI's way and is under appeal31. None of this is settled law.

AI labels arrive through platforms

Amazon's KDP requires authors to disclose AI-generated text, images or translations to Amazon when publishing7. India's IT Rules, in force since 20 February 2026, require online intermediaries to ensure permitted AI content is labelled30. Neither is a legal labelling duty on authors, illustrators or publishers in India.

More books in rural classrooms

In the rural government primary schools ASER visited, the share where students were using books other than textbooks rose from 36.9% in 2018 to 51.3% in 20244. ASER 2024 also found 23.4% of Std III children in rural government schools could read at least a Std II level text, the highest since the survey began3. ASER measures schools and reading, not book buying.

07The problems our guests are solving

Creativity, children's books, and the AI challenge
India

EP05Vinayak Varma · Independent

Creativity, children's books, and the AI challenge

Vinayak Varma is an independent author and illustrator of children's books. In the episode, he talks about creativity, making children's books and the challenge generative AI poses to that craft.

24%

of India's total trade book sales (print, e-books and audiobooks) were children's and young-adult books, in a January 2026 NielsenIQ BookData article that does not state the period covered19.

A share of trade sales across all children's and young-adult books, not picture books alone, and not a market size. It says nothing about any one author's sales.

For anyone whose books could be used to train AI, the open question in India is a DPIIT committee's December 2025 working paper, which proposes a mandatory blanket licence letting AI developers train on all lawfully accessed copyrighted works, with no option for rights holders to withhold them, in return for royalties set by a government-appointed committee25. It is a proposal for consultation, not law.

Watch the episode →

See how these conversations connect on the Discovery Atlas →

08Sources

One research agent gathered 39 figures from government, regulator and established data sources. A separate red-team agent then reopened every source, checked each number, its scope and its date, and looked for newer or conflicting data. It kept 16 figures as written, corrected 21 and cut 2. Each figure above links to its source below, with the date it refers to.

  1. CBSE Circular Acad-97/2025, 29 Dec 2025 · As of 29 Dec 2025
  2. Pratham Books Annual Report 2023–24 (Jun 2025) · FY2023–24 annual report (published Jun 2025)
  3. ASER Centre / Pratham: ASER 2024 National findings (Jan 2025) · ASER 2024 survey (released Jan 2025)
  4. ASER Centre / Pratham: ASER 2024 National findings (Jan 2025) · 2018, 2022 and 2024 ASER rounds
  5. Design Week, 1 Oct 2025 · 2024 member survey
  6. Authors Guild, 27 Sep 2023 · 2022 income (survey 2023)
  7. Amazon KDP Content Guidelines (read 20 Oct 2026) · KDP content guidelines, read 20 Oct 2026
  8. Authors Guild, 27 Sep 2023 · Sep 2023
  9. India CSR, 8 Sep 2026 (FIP / NielsenIQ BookData India Book Market Report 2026–2030) · 2024–25 estimate; 2030–31 projection (report released Sep 2026)
  10. India CSR, 8 Sep 2026 (FIP / NielsenIQ BookData India Book Market Report 2026–2030) · Report released Sep 2026; year of the segment estimates not stated by the source
  11. India CSR, 8 Sep 2026 (FIP / NielsenIQ BookData India Book Market Report 2026–2030) · Report released Sep 2026
  12. India CSR, 8 Sep 2026 (FIP / NielsenIQ BookData India Book Market Report 2026–2030) · 2025 estimate (report released Sep 2026)
  13. Entrackr, 16 Oct 2025 · 16 Oct 2025
  14. Entrackr, 24 Dec 2025 (RoC filings) · FY2024–25
  15. Entrepreneur India, 16 Oct 2025 · Oct 2025 (company statement)
  16. All About Book Publishing, 13 Apr 2026 (NielsenIQ BookData / GfK data) · Calendar 2025 vs 2024, tracked print sales
  17. All About Book Publishing, 13 Apr 2026 (NielsenIQ BookData / GfK data) · Calendar 2025 vs 2024
  18. All About Book Publishing, 13 Apr 2026 (NielsenIQ BookData / GfK data) · Calendar 2025
  19. All About Book Publishing, 10 Jan 2026 (NielsenIQ BookData) · Published Jan 2026; period not stated by source
  20. ASER Centre / Pratham: ASER 2024 National findings (Jan 2025) · ASER 2024 survey (released Jan 2025)
  21. Pratham Books Annual Report 2023–24 (Jun 2025) · FY2023–24
  22. Careers360, 3 Jun 2024 · June 2024
  23. MediaNama, 27 Jan 2025 · Jan 2025 (filing)
  24. CMS AI and copyright case tracker (2026) · Case tracker read 20 Oct 2026 (covers events to Jul 2026)
  25. DPIIT: Working Paper on Generative AI and Copyright, Part 1 (Dec 2025) · Working paper, Dec 2025 (proposal, not law)
  26. DPIIT: Working Paper on Generative AI and Copyright, Part 1 (Dec 2025) · Submissions dated 17 Aug 2025; recorded in the Dec 2025 working paper
  27. DPIIT: Working Paper on Generative AI and Copyright, Part 1 (Dec 2025) · Working paper Part 1, Dec 2025
  28. All About Book Publishing, 13 Apr 2026 · 10–18 Jan 2026
  29. All About Book Publishing, 13 Apr 2026 · 10–18 Jan 2026
  30. Hogan Lovells client briefing, 13 Feb 2026 · Notified 10 Feb 2026; in force 20 Feb 2026
  31. SCC Online Blog, 27 Jul 2026 · Interim order, 24 Jul 2026 (under appeal)