From The Hindu Archives, February 6, 1976: Harold Macmillan to visit Madras

Madras, Feb. 5: The former British Prime Minister, Mr. Harold Macmillan, will be in Madras for a couple of days this month. He is due to make a 10-day visit to India in his capacity as the President of the Macmillan group of companies. Arriving from Calcutta on February 20, a day after his landing in India, Mr. Macmillan will visit the local office and the press, besides meeting prominent citizens of Madras. On February 23, he will inaugurate the company’s computerised type-setting export project at Bangalore. Mr. S.G. Wasani, Managing Director, Macmillan Company of India, said computerised typesetting represented a major breakthrough in printing technology. To begin with, the company would have one such unit, costing Rs. 40 lakhs. Another unit would be installed within two years. He expected the firm’s exports to increase from the present Rs. 5 lakhs to Rs. 20 lakhs, by the end of 1976 as a result of this advanced process. In reply to a question, Mr. Wasani said the State Governments’ policy of nationalising school text-books gradually had not affected the company’s business, though many other publishers had to quit the field. If anything, the firm’s turnover of school textbooks had risen from Rs. 60 lakhs to Rs. 91 lakhs during the last three years, he said.