Vijay Kumar Chopra, chief managing director, Punjab Kesari group and president North India Printers Association (NIPA) was the chief guest while B S Nagi, assistant director, Government of India, Ministry of MSME, was the key speaker. The purpose of the meet was to create awareness among printers to form associations for better and effective networking, printing being the second largest industry with over 250,000 printers but still remains an unorganised sector.

In this meeting, Parveen Aggarwal, director, Bharat Industries Limited was unanimously chosen as the president for yet another term of two years through 2013 and 2014. Aggarwal has over twenty-seven years of experience in the field of printing.

Kamal Chopra, founder, Foil Printers was elected as the general secretary of OPA. Speaking on the occasion, Chopra said, “OPA is one of the most active associations in India and is always the front runner for any cause for the development of the printing and packaging Industry.”

On this occasion, OPA distributed the Grant-in-Aid of Rs 10,07,935 to the delegation which visited Drupa 2013 under the banner of OPA. This grant was received from the Ministry of MSME under international cooperation scheme.

The official calendar of OPA was also released jointly by Vijay Kumar Chopra and K S Khurana, president, IPAMA, during the meet at Ludhiana. Aggarwal, said, “The calendar is now an annual feature. Besides the holidays and important festivals, the details about the printing events and exhibitions are given in this calendar.”

To mark the beginning of the silver jubilee year, a special silver jubilee collar pin was released by Vijay Kumar Chopra. Describing the importance of this seal, Chopra, added, “This logo will be published by OPA and its members on all the stationery items throughout the silver jubilee year.”

OPA, in collaboration with Indian Printing Packaging & Allied Machinery Manufacturers Association (IPAMA) also organised a road show for the promotion of PrintPack India at Ludhiana on 23 December, 2012.

C P Paul, general secretary, IPAMA said, “PrintPack India is one of the Asia’s biggest trade show, where not only the Indian companies but the world’s majors into printing and allied machinery are going to mark their presence.” He further added, “ We are expecting more than 50,000 visitors, not only from across the country but also from SAARC, USA, South-Asian Countries, Europe & Middle East countries.”