The credit for starting the first paper mill in India goes to Dr. William Carey, the famous missionary, who set up a mill in Bengal around 1859. However earliest record of machine made paper goes back to as old as 1812.
The earliest writing materials used in India were Palm-leaves in the south and Birch-bark in the North. It was Arabs, who had learnt the use of paper from the Chinese, introduced it in India. Although, the process by which paper could be made was fully understood, yet paper industry made no progress in the country until Europeans organised it with the help of modern appliances.