Counterfeited books worth INR 2.4 crore raises questions about the rot in the system
Five years ago, PrintWeek had reported the seizure of illegally printed NCERT books during a raid at a godown in Partapur. At that time, books worth 35 crores and six printing machines were seized. 12 people have been taken into custody. The counterfeit Frankenstein rears its ugly head? Or did it never go away?
25 Jun 2025 | 424 Views | By PrintWeek Team
In an undercover operation exposing the underbelly of the academic publishing world, Delhi Police seized counterfeited NCERT textbooks worth INR 2.4 crore in Shahdara, Delhi. The raid, based on a tip-off, led to the discovery of pirated books meant for schoolchildren — a revelation that has sparked concerns about the integrity of India’s education supply chain. The counterfeit textbooks, which mimicked the design and content of the original NCERT books almost perfectly, were intended for students of classes six to 12 and covered subjects such as science, mathematics, social studies, and English.
According to a report by The New Indian Express, police officials revealed that the print quality was high enough to deceive even school authorities and booksellers. Four individuals were arrested during the crackdown. What is more troubling is the impact on students. “Many of these counterfeit books are filled with errors such as missing pages, incorrect diagrams, outdated content,” said a CBSE-affiliated school principal in Bihar.
“When students study from them, the learning outcomes are compromised. That’s the real cost.” The case has exposed not just a criminal network, but a series of loopholes and regulatory lapses in India’s book printing and distribution industry — vulnerabilities that counterfeiters are increasingly exploiting.
Is the system broken?
When PrintWeek spoke to an insider in the textbook industry, he said, “The crux of the matter is corruption within the ecosystem of NCERT. Both while issuing tenders and running a parallel system of printing and distribution.” In addition there is scarcity of textbooks. At times, this is created intentionally to promote pirated books.
Unlike pharmaceuticals or currency, textbook publishing, especially in the public sector, operates in a space with surprisingly weak enforcement mechanisms. The NCERT, a government-run institution responsible for setting academic standards and producing textbooks for millions of students across the country, outsources the printing of its books to private presses.
While these presses are vetted through tenders and contracts, once printing begins, tracking the flow of materials becomes difficult. Another major loophole lies in the recurring shortage of NCERT textbooks at the beginning of each academic year. This gap creates a lucrative opportunity for counterfeiters to flood the market with counterfeit versions at cheaper rates, often more preferable to the masses.
Textbooks need a technology lesson
Despite being official academic materials, most NCERT books do not contain modern anti-counterfeiting features like holograms, watermarks, or QR code verification. This makes it difficult for consumers to distinguish between authentic and fake copies. In contrast, publishers in the private education sector have started adopting such measures to protect their intellectual property.
An industry watcher said, “In today’s era of technology, integrating an inline security printing solution is no big deal. But one has to create awareness in the entire supply chain and willingness to adopt it.” Some of the live exmaples collated by the PrintWeek team during the PrintWeek Awards are about invisible ink on the first page or last page with confidential formation. A unique QR code which ensures the school authorities can check it while receiving the stock. Also parents are aware of the genuine quotient before buying it.
Even when counterfeiters are caught, the legal process is slow. Educational counterfeiters typically face charges under forgery and copyright laws, which can result in light sentences or easily bailable offences. As a result, there is little fear among those operating such illegal networks.
The history of textbook counterfeiting in India is deeply tied to the country’s complex educational landscape, rapid population growth, and widespread demand for affordable learning materials. As India’s literacy rate climbed after independence, and especially after the launch of national educational programs in the 1970s and 1980s, the demand for textbooks surged.
Need of the hour: Education, education, and more education
The National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) was established in 1961, and became the central body for producing standardised textbooks for schools across the country. These books were designed to be affordable and accessible, but their widespread use also made them prime targets for counterfeiting.
In India, the rise of textbook counterfeiting is closely linked to small-scale, often unregulated printing presses. These presses, found in cities like New Delhi, Meerut, Varanasi, and Patna — have long produced pirated copies of popular NCERT books, as well as state board textbooks and competitive exam guides.
The counterfeited books are printed on low-grade paper, with lower-quality ink, and sold through informal book markets or roadside stalls at a fraction of the official price. Often, they are indistinguishable at first glance from the originals, making enforcement difficult.
The counterfeiting of NCERT textbooks, in particular, has become a major concern. NCERT books are prescribed across thousands of schools affiliated with the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), making them one of the most printed and distributed series of textbooks in India. The massive scale of demand has led counterfeiters to flood markets, especially around the start of each academic session, with fake versions.
In many cases, these fakes are riddled with errors, outdated content, and poor print quality which negatively affects students’ education. Government agencies and NCERT have periodically cracked down on these illegal operations. Raids on printing presses and booksellers have uncovered thousands of pirated books and led to arrests, but enforcement remains patchy.
The issue is compounded by logistical challenges. NCERT’s own printing and distribution system often struggles to meet demand on time, creating gaps that counterfeiters are quick to exploit.
VOX POPULI
The real value lies in the intellectual property of books - Ranesh Bajaj, managing director of Vinsak
The illegal reproduction of school books continues to recur because pirates exploit the value of copyrighted content—not the cost of printing. Printing by itself is relatively inexpensive. With access to basic offset or digital presses, it’s easy for unauthorised printers to reproduce books at a fraction of the cost. The real value lies in the intellectual property—the copyrighted content that publishers and authors have invested time, expertise, and resources to create. Is there a print technology or tech solution which can prevent this?
Yes, there are effective print and technology-based solutions to prevent the illegal reproduction of school books. In fact, security printing technologies used in currency, ID documents, and packaging are being adopted in educational publishing as well. A few years ago, Vinsak collaborated with a leading publisher in Uttar Pradesh, implementing such a solution. The textbooks were printed with both covert and overt security features embedded into the cover pages: Overt features (such as color-shifting inks, holograms, or microtext) are visible and verifiable by end-users students, parents, or schools making it easier to identify original copies. Covert features (such as invisible inks, forensic tags, or machine- readable codes) are detectable only by authorised bodies or government agencies, offering a second layer of verification and enforcement. These features are cost-effective and do not significantly increase the price of the book, especially when applied at scale.
My message: Be curious about where printed books are being sourced from. Do not compromise on a child’s future for cheap and pirated books. Report to the authorities - as and when you come across such books.
Procure printed books from a reputed source - Vinay Kaushal, director of Provin Technos
It has got to do with our system of working with the L1 price in the government tender. The rates provided by NCERT earlier and even now are not justified. For this reason, the number of people doing work was less and whosoever did, always tried to find a way to cut corners to earn money. The current rate given by NCERT does not justify the machine and interest cost if someone installs a new machine. The net on pallet (printing alone, other overheads not counted) will just recover the machine and interest cost. In this case, who will happily do this work? The gap remains and so the window for duplication and counterfeits remains open. Having said that for the last one year, NCERT is putting efforts in bringing good quality printers into the approved vendor list by bringing RITES on board. This should improve the situation in the coming years. My personal opinion is, improving the rates and payment terms will help to retain printers. These pirated versions of NCERT books are not new. When I was in school, I faced a situation because of which the binding would be non-existent and pages missing. Those days, quality was the issue, now it is the demand-supply gap. I feel anti- counterfeiting measures are the only solution which can control this. By making the work more attractive (in terms of rates and payment) more print firms can be brought on board thereby reducing the demand-supply gap.
My message is: Look to procure books from a reputed source. Once a counterfeit book enters the system, it cannot be identified and ultimately students suffer.
PrintWeek’s point of view
Ultimately, the counterfeiting of textbooks in India reflects a vexed issue: the tension between the need for affordable education and the limitations of infrastructure and regulation. As long as there is a gap between supply and demand, especially in rural and low-income areas, unauthorised printing presses are likely to continue producing counterfeit textbooks, including those from NCERT.
Sources within the book distribution chain claim many of these counterfeit jobs are done by legal printing presses that moonlight for counterfeit networks. “Some printers have dual operations,” said a Daryaganj-based bookseller on the condition of anonymity. “They do clean jobs during the day and counterfeit runs at night.”
Print centres like Meerut and Patna, with clusters of printing presses, have also emerged as hotspots for such illicit activity. Unless the systemic gaps in India’s book publishing industry are addressed, similar incidents are likely to continue. This will not correct itself unless and until schools and students demand that correction to be done.