‘It's just a job. Grass grows, birds fly, waves pound the sand. I beat people up.’
- Muhammad Ali
 
Writing is just a job as well. Until you get a publishing offer, that is; after that it starts becoming pretty fun. Hopefully, the information below will help you  increase your odds of getting published in India:

You will likely start dreaming of your overflowing bank account and the litany of literary prizes-Booker, Pulitzer etc.-to follow the moment you finish your masterpiece. Well, do be prepared to dream for just a while longer. If you aren’t Shobha De’s offspring or someone with similar publishing connections, the earliest your book will hit market from the day you get done with your final draft is 12-18 months (this is the fastest processing time from securing an agent to getting a publisher and finally getting published in India). Worse, if your book is being published in the U.S or Europe, the whole process takes 24-36 months on average. Patience is one of the best virtues that an author can develop given the amount of waiting involved in this game- waiting to find an agent, waiting to find a publisher, waiting to get published, waiting to get reviews from top magazines, waiting to finally make some money etc. etc….

Technically, you don’t need a literary agent to get published in India since most Indian publishers accept manuscript submissions directly from authors. I would highly recommend getting one though. Agents are a vital resource for the first time author-they carefully edit your masterpiece, aggressively market it to major publishers, and negotiate the best possible deal for you (the ‘best deal’ is still peanuts by the way- I am confident that no one can make a living off writing in India. More on that later).
 
Unlike the U.S which is abounding with literary agents, I know of only two in India. I have had the privilege of working with the first; and have heard good things about the second.

• 1: Renuka Chatterjee; Osian Literary agency(www.osians.com)
  With over 15 years of publishing experience with big names like Harper Collins, Roli Books etc.; Renuka is as good as they come. I highly recommend her given she convinced both Penguin and Harper Collins to bid for my book in record time despite me being a complete nobody in the writing field. She wasn’t successful in selling international rights for my books (I attribute this to my book being too Indian a story, versus her selling abilities; she is pretty well connected with global publishing houses).
   
• 2: Jacaranda Press(www.jacranda-press.com)
  I didn’t get a chance to work with them, but I have heard good things from various sources. If Renuka rejects your book, this may be the best place to go (the only place, I guess!)

If you decide to bypass an agent, or they don’t pick up your novel, there is still hope. You can visit any major publishing house’s Indian website-Harper Collins, Penguin, Rupa&Co., Random House etc., to get instructions on how to submit your manuscript for consideration. A word of caution though. Like most institutions in India, publishing houses have no concept of time as well. You may have to wait six months or more; only to finally get an e-mail from the publisher saying they aren’t interested in your magnum opus.
 
Wait-don’t burn your manuscript if you got that e-mail! You can try some of the new crop of publishers in India-Indialog Publications, Shrishti Publications etc. - since they seem to be publishing almost everything that they can lay their hands on. Although the editing values, art, and distribution systems of these publishers are nowhere as robust as the big ones; your book may just turn out to be the sleeper hit of the year. Abhijit Bahaduri’s ‘Mediocre but Arrogant’ based on life in XLRI, published by Shrishti Publications, sold more than 50,000 copies-a stellar amount by Indian standards where anything that sells more 5000 copies is considered a bestseller. Point is, you can never predict the market, and even an average book with a mediocre publisher can sell more than a well written book by an A-List publisher.

I am sure you are curious to know what the light at the end of the tunnel is, and how much one earns as an author in India. While everyone hears mostly the well publicized cases of Arundhati Roy getting a Rupees 1 crore+ advance for the ‘God of Small Things’, and Chetan Bhagat making a couple of crores from ‘Five Point Someone’; these are the exceptions rather than the rule. In reality, the caricature of a hungry, starving, miserable author is quite true.
 
In the best case scenario, you will get paid an advance of Rupees one lakh or two against royalties, and if your book is a super-duper bestseller in India (>10,000 copies), you might end up with another lakh in your bank. Hardly worth your time-right? Wrong. The light at the end of the tunnel is the intangibles-seeing your name in print, the cosmic completeness of creativity, a feeling of living a life less ordinary, and other such immeasurable, unquantifiable factors. Highly recommended and well worth it-if you are not trying to feed your family with your writing in India, that is.