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    History of Govt. of India Presses

    1. Government of India Press, Rashtrapati Bhavan, NewDelhi —The Press of the Private Secretary to the Viceroy was established in the year1872. It was primarily meant for the printing of the private and personal correspondence of His Excellency the Viceroy, with His Majesty the King, the Secretary of State for India, the Governors of provinces, etc. In the interest of secrecy and urgency of the work, this Press was required to be self-contained and accordingly, apart from Printing, the work of Binding, Cutting, Gold lettering, Ruling, Perforating, Embossing, etc. was also executed. Certain other special work of excellence also used to be executed for the Vice regal Household.
    This Press came under the administrative control of the Ministry of Works, Mines and Power, on 23rd August, 1947. The Manager, Government of India Press, New Delhi, was, in addition to his duties, made the Manager of this Press.
    In September, 1951, a separate section was added to the Press for the Hindi Printing of the Honorable President’s Speeches and other miscellaneous work received from the various offices of the President’s Estate and the Prime Minister’s House and Secretariat.
    The Press was placed under independent charge of Assistant Manager (Technical)/Deputy Manager with effect from 20th September, 1960 who was later on re-designated as Officer-in-charge.

    2. Government of India Presses, Minto Road, New Delhi —By the announcement at the historic Coronation Durbar held at Delhi in 1911, Delhi became the Capital of India and some of the Central Secretariat Departments were transferred from Calcutta to Delhi in1912. A portion of the Government of India Press, at Calcutta was also moved to Delhi that year to deal with the urgent requirements for printing at the Headquarters of Government. In 1923, on the general re-organisation of the Government of India Presses, the Delhi Press was separated from its head office at Calcutta and made an entirely separate press. The development of Government Departments in New Delhi resulted in greater demands for printing work being placed with the Delhi Press. In 1931 it was transferred to New Delhi, in a newly constructed building at Minto Road.
    During World War II the Printing work in this Press went on increasing. In order to cope with the increasing volume of Printing work of the General Headquarters, a number of temporary posts were created in September, 1942. Even then, the work could not be managed with the then existing single shift and therefore, a partial second shift was introduced in the machine room of the Press. In December, 1944 further expansion of the Second Shift was approved by Government. In October, 1946 the Double Shift arrangement was further expanded in connection with the printing of the Indian Army List, Volume II. In January, 1947, a Hindi/ Urdu Section was set up in the Press. Due to the constitutional changes in the country and the setting up of a Constituent Assembly, the Printing work increased further and in July, 1947 a separate Section was started in this Press for the Printing of Constituent Assembly and Legislative Assembly Debates in Hindi and Urdu. After the attainment of Independence the activities of various departments of the Government of India in various spheres increased beyond expectation. In September, 1951 a partial 3rd shift was started in the machine room of the Press for the printing of postal forms and other miscellaneous work. It was decided to expand the 3rd shift in January,1952 and later on to open a separate Parliament Wing and a Top Secret Section and the necessary staff to run the two newly created units was sanctioned. The construction of the building for the erection of machinery and for accommodating the staff of the Parliament Wing was completed and production started. The 3rd shift was abolished after the separate Parliament Wing started functioning properly. Due to tremendous demand of printing work from Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha, it was decided to expand the existing Parliament Wing of the Press. Accordingly additional posts were created to run a 3rd shift from June, 1955.
    The Commerce Ministry Press was taken over by the Ministry of Works, Housing & Supply on 2nd January, 1952 and re-designated as Government of India Photo Litho Press which merged with the Government of India Press, New Delhi. From 15th September,1958 as an additional wing and functions under the overall administrative control of the General Manager, for printing books, pamphlets, posters and other material for the dissemination of educational and instructive literature in connection with development and welfare activities. The Photo Litho Wing after its merger has been expanded further partly with the aid under the Indo-U.S. Technical Cooperation Programme for Community Development. This Wing is also equipped with the latest type of composing machine known as Photo-Setter. The press was bifurcated in 1987 into two Presses i.e. Letter Press and Photo Litho Units. The latter is completely modernised.
    The Cabinet in its decision dated 16-8-2004 decided to merge both the Units and now the Press is known as Government of India Press, Minto Road, New Delhi. Similarly, as per the Cabinet decision of 20.09.2017 Govt. of India Press, Faridabad has been merged with Govt. of India Press, Minto Road.

    3. Government of India Press, Temple Street, Kolkata —The Government of India Press, Temple Street, Calcutta, came into existence in August 1924 on the termination of the printing contract from Government of India standard forms with Messrs Lal Chand & Sons, Calcutta and the creation of the Central Forms Store for storage and distribution of Government of India Forms. At this time the Central Press was undergoing reorganisation and could not undertake the heavy volume of work resultant from the termination of the Contract, and the printing of a large number of forms was entrusted to this Press.
    The Press continued to function from year to year on a temporary basis until March 1929 when it was placed on a permanent footing.
    Formerly the Forms Press, Calcutta, was a small press with a limited number of old machines. It has now become a big Press having new machinery and equipment in all sections. To supplement its printing capacity, a partial night shift was started from March, 1947. To solve the accommodation problem a new 3 storey building was constructed at 166, Lenin Sarani, Calcutta. As per the Cabinet decision of 20.09.2017, Govt. of India Press, Santragachi, Government of India Form Store, AD(OP), Government of India Text Book Press, Bhubaneswar have been merged with Govt. of India Press, Temple Street, Kolkata.

    4. Government of India Press, Nasik —With the advent of Independence and Democratic set-up of the Government, the volume of printing work increased substantially, thus difficulties and delays were felt by the Government of India in publishing and printing their Administrative Reports, Laws, Acts, Departmental Codes and Manuals, Gazettes, Staff lists and other miscellaneous jobs which were necessary to keep the public and the world informed of the Government of India activities. To find out a fully considered solution to overcome these difficulties the Government constituted a Committee of Experts in the Printing trade. They toured throughout India and went into the details from all angles. Their report was out in the middle of 1948. Besides other recommendations made by them, they considered that as there was no major press of the Government of India in the western region a full-fledged major press should be established fully equipped for Letterpress, Photo Litho and Rotaries. They considered that the location should be somewhere near Bombay where there are many Central Government Offices and which is the chief industrial and commercial capital city of India. Their recommendations were accepted by the Government and in view of its proximity to Bombay temperate climate and atmospheric humidity, choice fell on Nasik. The Standing Finance Committee approved the scheme in the end of 1948. Plant and Machinery were immediately ordered which started arriving in1949, and which were stored in temporary hired sheds near Nasik Road Railway Station. The Central Public Works Department took up the construction of buildings for which they acquired land on the main Nasik-Poona Road, mid-way between Nasik city and Nasik Road Railway Station. The construction was taken up, and by the end of 1953, about 100 quarters for the staff were made available. In the meantime a nucleus Press was started on 22nd February, 1951 with a small staff of about100 workers. The staff was mostly brought from other presses. The strength was augmented further, on getting H. T. line in 1953. The staff strength then rose to about 300 workers.
    The main press building was ready in the beginning of 1955 when machinery was shifted to the new site and erected. The press was formally opened on the 31st October, 1955. The nucleus Press was closed and the hired sheds vacated in November, 1955. About 200 more staff quarters were also ready by this time and were allotted to workers. The start was made with the Letter-Press Wing only, as neither full equipment for the other wings was available nor was there enough space. By April, 1959, 744 quarters were allotted to the workers. The capital outlay upto the end of March, 1959, on all buildings including the residential colony and plant and machinery, etc. was well over two and a half crores of rupees.
    The work in the Forms Wing was started with a staff of 132 men in June, 1958. The construction of building for the Press and the residential colony was a programme of the First Five Year Plan. From the point of view of location, layout, working conditions, as well as the Planning of the Factory and Office Buildings and residential colony in one self-contained campus this press has set a pattern worthy of emulation.
    As per the Cabinet decision of 20.09.2017, Govt. of India Press, Koratty has been merged with Govt. of India Press, Nasik and Govt. of India Press, Coimbatore and Govt. of India Text Book Press, Mysore are likely to be merged after disposal of Court Cases.

    5. Government of India Press, Ring Road, New Delhi —The need for another Press in Delhi complex was felt to meet the increasing demands for printing books etc. and also to serve as a Central Printing Unit to attend to the work in Hindi. The foundation stone of this Press was laid in December, 1964. The Press started production in 1969. The Press is under the charge of a Manager. The construction of 249 staff quarters in the attached residential estate has been completed in the first phase. Construction of 200 quarters completed in 2nd phase.
    As per the Cabinet decision of 20.09.2017, Govt. of India Press, Nilokheri, Govt. of India Press, Aligarh and Govt. of India text Book Press, Chandigarh have been merged with Govt. of India Press, Ring Road and Govt. of India Press, Shimla is likely to merged after disposal of Court Cases.