r2i forum

I was wondering how to subscribe to foreign magazines after R2I/ Specifically these concerns:

Any GoI restrictions?
Safety of mail delivery
SPeed of mail delivery
payment arrangements ( leant worry , worst case charge it to a US credit card?).

Any other issues?

Thanks
Rasi

Most are available locally. If you ask your local book shop, he will order for you.

yeah I used to buy Playboy from Connaught Place in Delhi all the time. (then used to sell them to my juniors in college).

They had a ton of other foreign magazines ...Penthouse, Hustler ..you name it!

Many of the foreign mags like Cosmopolitan have Indian edition. If you are looking at just foreign edition, the choices may be limited to few high end bookstores. I got a sticker shock by The Economist (Rs 150) in India and bought Business India for Rs 15 instead.

Rasi - There are no restrictions unless the magazine is adult in nature.

You can go to IBH website (www.ibhworld.com). Several magazines allow Indian subscription in rupees (e.g Economist, Rolling Stone, Harper Collins, Vogue, GQ, Time, Newsweek, Good Housekeeping, National Geographic, Scientific American and Maxim). All these magazines are on time. Some of these are India specific versions. Some are pretty much the same as you would get in the US. In some instances, the cover story is tailored to the geography but the overall contents are the same.

The ones I get shipped from the US are:
New Yorker about $115, if I remember correctly, takes 2 weeks but sometimes I would get a delay of about a month with four issues delivered simultaneously.
Conde Nast Traveller (owned by the same publication) about $40, I think - 2 weeks
Before leaving the US, I entered into a two year subscription for about $75 or so (which includes free forwarding to any address in the world). Once in India, you have to pay the full $115 a year.

They are pretty accomodating if there is a missed delivery.

They get couriered and so far no major problems. In general it is a good idea to mention as many particulars about your address as possible (e.g. new number, old number)

Wall Street Journal, I think, comes from Honk Kong or Singapore but is usually one or two days old by the time you get it. If you subscribe to print edition (Rs 10500 for the best discounted version), you can get the online for free. So you can read the most important stuff online and wait for the joy of print version for others. To subscribe to WSJ, go to ibhworld.com

Most magazines may have an international shipping option (especially nowadays). You can check online.

btw time economist and newsweek both have the asian edition (same content as the india print edition) on their websites. so , save some money, save some trees and reduce raddi (paper) by going online. for news magazines, there isnt much of a case to subscribe to them anymore. unless you are talking about industry specific journals which may not be free online.

BTW, speaking of magazines and local editions, I read somewhere that Time was putting India on its cover because of the 60th Anniversary. Delighted by this news, I ran to a local Barnes and Noble to pick up a keepsake issue (I don't subscribe to Time). Unfortunately, there was no elephant on the cover :(

I went to their website and found this:
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/0,9263,7601070813,00.html

As you can see, the rest of the world got this edition, but not the United States since New Orleans and Katrina was on the cover. So, while the whole world got the news on India's 60th Anniversary, the US got local news. Sometimes, I wonder, am I living in the cultural backwaters of a global world?

Too bad, I have to request a family member in India to pick up a commemorative issue for me off the newsstands.

#7, time has always had specific editions for specific regions. time canada / europe / asia / s. american editions generally have diferent headlines from US editions. I can bet only the Time asia edition had what you needed. going by your argument, Time readers in india do not need a rehash of the katrina mess on india's 60th anniversary either ;-)