Nagaland: INS flags newsprint supply gap

Indian Newspaper Society (INS) president Vivek Gupta has expressed serious concern over the prevailing state of the domestic newsprint industry, highlighting a widening gap between demand and indigenous production.
According to a press release, India’s annual newspaper newsprint consumption stands at approximately 1.2 million tonnes, while domestic production has struggled to cross the 0.5 million tonnes mark. As a result, Indian mills are currently able to meet only about 40 per cent of the total demand, pointing to what the INS describes as a significant “hollowing out” of the industry.
This imbalance has persisted for more than two decades, with no meaningful expansion in dedicated newsprint manufacturing capacity during this period. Due to this structural limitation, newspaper publishers are compelled to rely heavily on imports to ensure uninterrupted supply.
Gupta also questioned claims by sections of the domestic industry that sufficient capacity exists to meet publishers’ requirements. Citing data from the domestic newsprint industry’s own representative body, he noted that exports over the last 15 years, from 2010–11 to 2024–25 have been negligible, amounting to only about 18,000 tonnes cumulatively.
Such minuscule export volumes, he said, clearly establish the absence of any surplus capacity, contradicting assertions that domestic producers are capable of fully catering to publishers’ demand.