During the past three years CBA India and CBA U.S. have been working cooperatively to renew relationships and find new ways to help increase distribution of Christian literature to the world’s second-largest national population of more than 1.3 billion people, including nearly 24 million Christians.
After CBA visited India two years ago, local Christian leaders asked CBA to help weave the country’s Christian media industry into a unified whole to improve production and distribution of Christian resources. The rights and licensing event will bring together global publishing leaders for business and ministry.
Hosted at the YMCA International House and Programme Centre, this two-day rights and licensing sales event brings international publishing representatives together to negotiate sales, production, and distribution agreements for Christian content and media. The event anticipates about 100 publishing companies will participate.
India is on the verge of positive growth brought on by an improving economy and recent tax reforms. Simplified tax laws across 27 states and seven territories have created opportunity for rapid business growth in the world’s sixth largest economy, soon to be fifth largest with an economy growing at around 7 percent annually. About half of the population is under 24 years old with a median age of about 28 – the world’s largest youth population – signaling continuing strong growth potential.
Purchasing power is reported at more than $9 trillion annually, ranked fourth in the world, although nearly 21 percent of the population lives in poverty, according to the CIA’s The World Factbook.
CBA MarketSquare for the first time is part of the World Christian Expo, a biannual celebration of Christianity in India, 7-11 November, in Mumbai.
Organized by India’s Christian Cultural Society in partnership with CBA and Sathyam Ministries, the event’s main purpose is to unify India’s Christian community and bring together Christians from abroad to engage in sharing innovations, promoting progress, and fostering cooperation among fellow brethren.
The Expo showcases Christendom in diverse disciplines such as international missions, media, music, films, and publishing. It features Indian Christian writers, publishers, printers, distributors and media producers, including TV, radio, and digital technologies. Various training, and workshops sessions are conducted on topics of prime importance in the Christian field.
Additionally, numerous family-friendly activities engage people of all age groups. Music festivals filled with lively music and group dances, speeches by renowned speakers, visual displays of the history of printing from clay to computer, the process of Bible translation, and various awards are some of the Expo’s special features.
CBA India is an organization formed more than 20 years ago as a CBA international chapter, part of CBA’s early initiatives to create a global network of trained business missionaries supporting Great Commission work through Christian literature distribution. CBA has about 500 companies and contacts with publishing, retailing, or ministry affiliation in India. The group is now an independent association but has direct membership relationships with CBA U.S.
Mumbai, the capital city of the west coast state of Maharashtra, is India’s most important financial and entertainment capital. Its population of about 20 million people on the Arabia Sea makes it the fourth largest urban center in the world, after Tokyo, Mexico City and New York-Newark.
Those interested in mission outreach to impoverished people in Mumbai may volunteer for a service project through Truth/Sathyam Ministries. Email christianexpo.intl@gmail.com.
Doing Business Effectively in India. (Page 3)
Read about how India is an example of the global church here. (Page 8)
Read about how truth is spreading in a nation of contrasts here.
Category: Global