Dear diary from Delhi

Easy availability of good quality paper makes Capital top exporter of corporate planners

In the constant competition of which is the better city between Delhi and Mumbai, this round goes to Delhi. The nation's capital has edged out Mumbai in the export of diaries, a seasonal industry, which sees a surge of activity in September and tends to dry up in January.



Diary manufacturers say that India is a large exporter of diaries to other countries, because of cheap labour and inexpensive raw materials available here. However, Delhi seems to score over Mumbai in terms of cost.

"There is a huge demand for leather-bound diaries. No country in the world can beat Dharavi in terms of both cost and quality. So India has become an exporter of diaries. But, it is cheaper to manufacture diaries in Delhi.
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This is because the West Coast variety of paper is cheaper in Delhi. In fact, there are u00a0several traders and manufacturers in Mumbai who prefer to get diaries manufactured in Delhi," said Raju Thakkar, whose Worli-based outfit C K Enterprises prints and sells diaries in bulk, after getting them printed Saki Naka, Andheri East.

Thakkar added that for most diary manufacturers, it makes sense to take large orders from corporate clients, rather than smaller orders.

"I am still getting orders from clients to print diaries but I have stopped accepting them because it would be uneconomical right now." He added, "Typically, I get orders of 5,000 diaries to 1 lakh from my clients. Four of my clients ordered 1 lakh diaries from me for this year. Other orders come to 10,000 diaries per lot."

However, several diary manufacturers across the nation have said that they have not received big profits this year, as they have begun to feel the pinch of increasing paper prices.

"Procurement of good quality paper has become a big challenge. India maybe a diary manufacturing hub, but the country simply does not make huge amounts of good quality paper. Much of it has to be imported from overseas since neither the government nor the private sector can cope with the demand.
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So, we are at the mercy of paper importers. If the government does not give clearances to large paper making factories, our import costs will go through the roof.

Paper manufacturing needs lot of good quality wood pulp and that leads to deforestation and so the government is wary of giving out licences because of pressure from environmentalists," Thakkar elaborated.

The flip side

However, on the flip side, the diary manufacturing industry is happy to have an advantage cheap printing costs. "Printing costs are still low and labour is cheap.
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But, the Chinese printing u00a0industry is catching up because the u00a0diary industry does not need too many skills. It's largely a volume business and Chinese are good at volume-based businesses.

But China also has to import a lot of paper and so our costs are under control," said S K Mayur of Ajanta Diaries. He added that the industry as a whole did not have the power to lobby for beneficial policies.

"The government should understand that we, as an industry employ a large amount of semi-skilled people. The government must give us the same freedom to import huge amounts of u00a0paper, which is currently enjoyed only by the newspaper industry," Mayur said.

In the off season
Most diary manufacturers generally happen to be full time stationery traders or double up as gift item manufacturers. "The diary business is basically a section of the stationery business. It is all about re-fashioning paper. Many diary manufacturers have diversified into making personal organisers, pocket diaries and desktop writing pads. It is purely a volume-based business and competition is cut-throat," said Varun Shah, of the Andheri-based Impex Stationers, which manufactures everything from telephone diaries to notebooks.

Did you know?
One of the most famous diaries is that of Anne Frank. Anne Frank depicted her life in hiding during World War II through her personal diary Kitty. The diary chronicles her life and that of her family from June 12, 1942 to August 1, 1944. The book was originally published by her father, Otto Frank, who returned to Amsterdam and found the book