NEW DELHI: With 90,000 titles every year, the publishing industry in India generates more business and jobs than Bollywood, former Union Information and Broadcasting minister Manish Tewari has said.

Speaking at the launch of senior journalist Dilip Bobb's "The Best of TEL" here yesterday, the Congress leader said that the Indian publishing industry was poised to become the world's largest.

Availability of highly skilled technical manpower and a rapidly growing book market have greatly contributed to the upturn in the publishing industry.

"The Best of TEL" is a collection of essays by eminent writers from diverse fields first published in the magazine "The Equator Line".

Bobb has edited the volume published by Palimpsest.

"He has carefully gone through every essay, discovered its subtext and put it in perspective," Palimpsest CEO Bhaskar Roy said.

Among the contributors to the volume are eminent psychiatrist Sanjay Chugh, sociologist Shiv Visvanathan, Swiss writer Robert Hutchison, Australian film critic John W.Hood, former Doordarshan news anchor Neethi Ravindran, British scholar Danielle Hall and veteran columnist Sunanda K.

Datta-Ray.

Pointing to the efforts made by "The Equator Line" to break free from today's mainstream media, Bobb, in his introduction to the volume said, "The core of the magazine is what people call narrative journalism" in contrast to "cacophonic and sensationalized" media dominated by 24x7 television.

"If there is one constant in a rapidly changing world of communication, it is this: the human need for thought-provoking journalism will always command a premium,” he added.

Palimpsest Group chairman Yogesh Malik said that both the magazine and Palimpsest Publishing House would give priority to new writers with original voices.

Modi also took a dig at the previous UPA regime, saying media was full of reports on all kinds of "scams" in that period.

"Now, the reports are not about coal scam but about coal auction," he said, adding there has been no report of any scam even as his government gets ready to complete one year this month.

Talking about the districts in which coal mines have been allotted, Modi said a Foundation will be created in each of them and a portion of royalty earned through auction will go to it to benefit locals.

Speaking on the occasion, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee stressed that the Centre and the states will have to work hand-in-hand for taking the country's progress forward.

Modi said the chief minister was right in saying so.

The IISCO plant had been modernised at a cost Rs 16,000 crore to raise the production capacity from 0.85 mtpa to 2.9 mtpa and would have the largest blast furnace.

Modi also mentioned that all the rating agencies were saying that India was the fastest developing nation in the world.

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