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S. Chand Group

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S. Chand Group
Company typePublic
  • NSE : SCHAND
  • BSE : 540497
IndustryPublishing and education services
Founded1939 [1]
FounderShyam Lal Gupta
HeadquartersNew Delhi, India
Key people
  • Himanshu Gupta (managing​ director
  • Dinesh Kumar Jhunjhnuwala​ (executive director)
Websitewww.schandgroup.com

S. Chand Group is one of India's oldest and largest publishing and education services companies, founded in 1939 and based in New Delhi. The publishing house prints books for primary, secondary and higher education sectors. It was the first company in India to get the 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 over 25 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 over 10,000 titles to over 40,000 schools and educational institutes.[3]

History

S. Chand was founded in 1939 in a 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.

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. [7]

Planenta Super Variant Machines

By this time, Shyam Lal Gupta had gathered fame as one of the pioneers of the Indian Publishing Industry. He was awarded the ‘Padma Shri’ 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.[citation needed]Artists such as Anupam Sinha created popular characters and series such as Detective Kapil, Manas Putra and Space Star before moving on to Raj Comics with Super Commando Dhruva. In 2006, S. Chand became the first publishers in India to be certified for ISO 9001:2000 [10]

The S Chand group acquired Vikas Publishing House Private Limited (including Madhubun books) in 2012 for a total consideration of Rs144cr (~ USD 26 Mn), New Saraswati House (India) Private Limited over two tranches in 2014-16 for a total consideration of Rs149cr (~ USD 24 Mn) and Chhaya Prakashani Private Limited  over two tranches  2016-19 for Rs235cr (~ USD 35 Mn).

S Chand and Company had its initial public offering (IPO) on 26 April 2017.[11]

Education services and digital content

In recent years, the group has diversified its offering after stating its aim to be a ‘knowledge corporation’. The various digital initiatives that the company has launched are as follows-:

  • Learnflix – The company launched 'Learnflix' – India's most affordable personalized learning app in January 2020 anchored around the school curriculum for Grades 6 to Grade 10. Till July, 2020, the application has witnessed over 80,000 downloads and over 18,000 subscribers. Its content for all classes is available at a price of approximately US$35.
  • Mylestone – Curriculum solution for schools focused on Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities in India. This Solution now offers online teaching enabled platform with live classes, e-books, teaching tools etc. to be used by teachers and students. The solution has been signed up approx. 400 schools during FY20 which caters to almost 1.5L students.
  • Mystudegear – Provides blended learning with our complete range of school books with over 1 Mn + users. This app has been steady in terms of adding approx. 400K users on an annual basis.
  • Destination Success – Enabling Digital classrooms (CBSE/ICSE/IB and State Board Schools).
  • Smart K – Early Learning Curriculum solutions (Pre Schools)
  • Test Coach – Focused on govt exams market. Has over 25K app installations.
  • Chhaya Learning App – Bengali/English Learning with books with over 500,000 app installations.
  • VRX – Virtual Reality with books with over 50,000 + users

Corporate social responsibility

Shyam Lal Charitable Trust was established by the Shri Shyam Lal Gupta into which the royalties of the company's 6 bestselling 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.

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 2400 authors and has delivered more than 15,000 titles for students in schools, colleges, universities and other higher education institutes across India and other countries.[12] Some of the notable titles from the company are as follows-:

  • Quantitative Aptitude (R.S. Aggarwal)
  • 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)
  • Nuclear Physics
  • Indian Economics
  • Data Structures & Algorithm
  • Organisational Behaviour
  • Electrical Technology (BL Theraja)

References

  1. ^ TextBook Publisher in India, Online Book Seller in New Delhi: S Chand Group
  2. ^ "Global Media Market Intelligence". schandgroup.com. Retrieved 5 March 2016.
  3. ^ "SChand Publishers". schandgroup.com. Retrieved 5 March 2016.
  4. ^ Udit Mishra (29 August 2013). "S Chand: India's Fastest-Growing Educational Publisher". Forbes India. Retrieved 5 March 2016.
  5. ^ Pattanayak, D.P. Academic Publishing Scene in India. Central Institute of Indian Languages.
  6. ^ "Platinum Jubilee Celebration of S. Chand Publishing" (PDF). Publishers Monthly. 20 February 2014. Retrieved 5 March 2016.
  7. ^ "Vol. 23 No. 23" (PDF). Newsletter THE FEDERATION OF PUBLISHERS' AND BOOKSELLERS' ASSOCIATIONS IN INDIA. March 2004. Retrieved 6 March 2016.
  8. ^ "About Us". S. Chand Group. Retrieved 5 March 2016.
  9. ^ "Awards". PHI Learning. Retrieved 5 March 2016.
  10. ^ "Award". American Quality Assesors (India) Pvt. Ltd. Retrieved 5 March 2016.
  11. ^ "S Chand IPO sees stellar demand, subscribed 12x on Day 3". The Economic Times. 28 April 2017. Retrieved 9 August 2017.
  12. ^ Profile
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