The printing and publishing industry is necessarily the mother of all industries as the subject philosophy is mother of all sciences, according to famous printer and publisher Paruchuri Hanumantha Rao.
The Vijayawada Book Festival Society (VBFS) organised a meeting on ‘200 years of printing and publishing industry' at Gidugu Ramamurthy pranganam here on Sunday. On the occasion, sharing his experiences, Mr. Rao said that sea changes took place in the publishing industry in the country. The companies here were able to compete with their counterparts in US and European countries. The end product (books etc) were being delivered within few days after manuscript reached the printer or publisher with very less operational losses like waste of paper, he explained.
Jolepalem Mangamma, who penned a book titled ‘Printing India', explaining about the printing and publishing sector, said that printing machines were imported here two centuries ago to publish Bible in Indian languages. The publishing industry began at Srirampur and Kolkata, and later spread out to other regions. The British wrote and published dictionaries, grammar etc of Indian languages, while Bible was first published in 1719, she said.
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Velaga Venkatapayya, who presided over the meeting, said the publishing industry picked up with publication of books on sciences and other subjects.
Vijayawada became hub of publishing since 1950s, and people like M. N. Rao took it up as movement. Notwithstanding advent of e-books, the patronage and continuation of conventional books was here to stay.