Around 4.71 lakh pirated copies of NCERT textbooks were seized across states in 2024 and 2025, the government has told Parliament.
The National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) is the country’s apex body for the preparation of textbooks that are taught in CBSE schools. A majority of state school boards also use these textbooks with some modifications.
In a written reply in the Rajya Sabha on July 23, minister of state for education Jayant Chaudhary said reports about pirated NCERT textbooks had come from different parts of the country.
Congress member Pramod Tiwari had sought details about the pirated textbooks, the revenue loss suffered by the NCERT and the steps taken to curb the menace.
“Piracy is driven primarily by commercial motives of unscrupulous elements. The main objective of the NCERT is to provide quality textbooks at a very affordable price to the last student across the country, on a no-profit and no-loss basis,” Chaudhary said.
A retired NCERT official attributed the problem to the faulty assessment of the demand for textbooks by the council’s sales wing.
He said the sales wing is supposed to find out the number of new books that would be realistically required in a year, keeping in view the fact that old books might be used by some students. He said more often than not, the sales wing underestimates the demand and prints 5-7 crore books against the demand for 10-15 crore. The pirated books make up for the shortfall.
“Timely printing of sufficient books and proper distribution is key to addressing the problem of piracy. But printing of books and distribution is a problem,” the retired official said.
The NCERT uses its five distribution depots and empanelled private distributors to supply books to schools and students.
Chaudhary said the NCERT had slashed textbook prices by 20 per cent to discourage piracy.
In the last year, the NCERT has raided a record number of 29 premises belonging to manufacturers and sellers of pirated textbooks and illegal NCERT-watermarked paper, and confiscated stock and machinery worth over ₹20 crore, the minister said.
“The NCERT has also taken several proactive measures to hit at the very root of the piracy business, viz, 20 per cent price reduction of textbooks, timely printing of textbooks, improved quality of paper and printing (using modern machines), promotion of online sale of textbooks through e-commerce platforms,” he added.
Chaudhary said the NCERT had also conducted a pilot trial of a technology-based anti-piracy solution on one million copies of a Class VI textbook.
“This tech-based solution has been developed and patented by IIT Kanpur. The result of these steps has been very positive,” he said.
The technology uses a code in the books that can be scanned by buyers to know if they are genuine.
The minister said the NCERT sold books worth ₹526 crore in 2024-25 compared with ₹232 crore in 2023-24.
However, a book seller in Dwarka said vendors were selling pirated textbooks at higher prices than the authentic ones by adding hardcovers. The paper used in the pirated books is also substandard, he added.