Hindustan Pencils

| logo = Hindustan_Pencils.jpeg | type = | genre = | fate = | predecessor = | successor = | foundation = 1958 | founder = | defunct = | location_city = Mumbai | location_country = India | location = | locations = | area_served = South Asia | key_people = | industry = Stationery | products = pencils, office products | services = | revenue = | operating_income = | net_income = | aum = | assets = | equity = | owner = | num_employees = | parent = | divisions = | subsid = | traded_as = | homepage = hindustanpencils.com | footnotes = }}

Natraj HB graphite pencil

{{Infobox company apaara pvt ltd

Hindustan Pencils Pvt. Ltd. is an Indian manufacturer of pencils, writing materials and other stationery items, established in 1958[1] in Bombay (present-day Mumbai). The company makes writing implements under the brands Nataraj and Apsara, and claims to be the largest pencil manufacturer in India.[2] The Nataraj 621 HB wood-cased pencil has a distinctive red-and-black stripe design.[3]

Hindustan Pencils also produces a line of colored pencils under the Colorama brand. In 2013, a law student in Bangalore filed a consumer complaint against company over its colored pencils, claiming that the "skin" color was lighter than his own skin color, and that the company's preference for the lighter "skin" color promoted "racist ideas".[4] The "skin" colored pencil was also the subject of a campaign by anti-discrimination activist group Brown n' Proud.[5]

Natraj HB graphite pencil metal container in 1990's

It has been one of the most known pencil manufacturing company since very beginning in India which is currently manufacturing about each and every stationary stuffs all over the country and abroad too. Market leader Hindustan Pencils has a 45% market share and is the largest manufacturer in India, at 8 million pencils a day. The company was started in 1958 by friends BJ Sanghvi (fondly called as Babubhai), Ramnath Mehra and Mansookani.