For the upcoming academic year, over 30 crore free textbooks will need to be printed, requiring approximately 80,000 tons of paper. But where will that paper come from—domestic mills or imports from abroad? This question has created a complex tug-of-war. With arguments over protecting domestic industry, the pressure to deliver books on time, legal obligations, and bitter past experiences with commission-based rackets, a deadlock has emerged among the Education Ministry, the NCTB, paper mill owne...
