In a move that marks an expansion into the Indian market, HarperCollins Worldwide has taken complete ownership of HarperCollins India after running the company for 10 years as a joint venture with Living Media India, an Indian media company focused on publishing and music. The move will not only make HarperCollins’ U.S. list more widely available in India, but also bring more Indian writers to a global English-language audience.

Noting that India is “the second largest English-speaking country in the world,” Brian Murray, president and CEO of HarperCollins, said, We see India as an area of growth both for titles from all our global imprints beging published into the region, as well as for local Indian authors being published in other markets through our HarperCollins 360 program. This is year another way to expand the reach of our author’s works.” HarperCollins UK and International CEO Victoria Bransley highlighted the importance of digital publishing to the acquisition, noting that “due to the increased possibilities of digital distribution, we are looking forward to this new chapter in our development in India.”

Run as a joint venture for the last  10years, HarperCollins India has published such award-winning books as Aravind Adiga’s White Tiger (Man Booker Prize winner), Manu Joseph’s Serious Men (The Hindu Prize); Siddhartha Mukherjee’s The Emperor of All Maladies (Pulitzer Prize).

P.M. Sukumar, CEO of HarperCollins India, said, “We now look forward to building further on the solid foundations provided by the partnership with LMI, with increased focus on our local publishing program, and drawing on HarperCollins’ global expertise in digital media to deliver our content to audiences in India and worldwide.”