Books on Telangana history in huge demand

Hyderabad: Bookstores and writers are making a lot of money on textbooks on Telangana culture, history and dialect. The textbook business recorded a turnover of over Rs 100 crore within three months after the Telangana state government changed the syllabus for recruitment exams, giving the most weightage to questions on the state's history, culture and dialect.

With only a few books available in the market with special focus on Telangana culture and dialect, senior lecturers and professors of the region have been busy authoring the books.

Each job aspirant – their number running into lakhs – has been purchasing books worth Rs 5,000 on an average and the stocks are getting exhausted at bookstores within no time.

The recent recruitment exams conducted by Telangana State Public Service Commission has further increased the demand for these books as candidates had to answer several questions on Telangana culture and dialect which they had not come across in any books available in the market at present.

The government recently approved filling of over 9,000 vacancies in police and fire departments and even for these exams the syllabus on Telangana culture and dialect has been made compulsory.

“All these factors contributed to a huge demand for Telangana books. Each job aspirant has been purchasing books worth Rs 5,000 on an average. About 20 lakh job aspirants are currently undergoing coaching for various recruitment exams across the state. The turnover crossed the Rs 100-crore mark within three months, since August this year,” said Mr B. Naveen Kumar, a bookseller in Koti.

The coaching centres are striking deals with senior lecturers and professors to write books on these subjects for their job aspirants. A set of five books is being sold to each job aspirant for Rs 7,000 with Rs 2,000 being offered to writers on each set sold.

“Lecturers and professors with rural backgrounds, who have a command over Telangana culture, traditions and dialect, are in huge demand. We have approached professors from Osmania and Kakatiya universities to prepare study material for job aspirants. These books are a huge hit among job aspirants as they don't want to take any chances in recruitment exams for which hundreds are competing for a single post,” said Mr K. Venugopal, who runs the Groups Study Circle at Ashoknagar.

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