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INS urges FM to remove import duty on newsprint

Aultrin Vijay — Sat, 04 Apr 2020 13:22:00

After the announcement of the 21-day lockdown by prime minister Narendra Modi owing to the Covid-19 pandemic, several industries were under a state of shock, including newspaper and newsprint. The circulation of almost all newspapers were hit and some of its key revenue streams were blocked.

However, INS has come out in support of the newspaper sector and has demanded some key changes in order to keep the business floating.

In a letter to Sitharaman, Shailesh Gupta, president of INS, requested for a two-year tax holiday and removal of import duty on newsprint. Sounding a note of alarm, Gupta stated that the industry has been hit by "triple whammy of Coronavirus, plummeting advertisement revenue, and customs duty on newsprint".

"We are now facing a dire scenario of collapsing advertising and circulation due to Coronavirus, which has exacerbated an already difficult phase," Gupta mentioned in the letter. "Media's activity is essential and our newspapers are going above and beyond their call of duty in this pandemic, with editorial and other colleagues including production, printing presses, distribution vendors, putting themselves at great personal risk to be at the front lines to ensure readers get life-saving and other essential information day after day, in the safety of their homes."

It also stated that the domestic Indian newspaper industry in real danger of "turning sick due to collapsing advertising". The letter pointed out last year's shutting down of print operations of newspapers such as DNA, Financial Chronicle and Firspost Print, and other print editions on the verge of closure.

Citing the rise of social media and digital instant news platforms, Gupta said that the newspapers are already under severe financial pressure and unsustainable due falling advertising and rising costs coupled with an unprecedented digital onslaught from foreign technological giants. The letter said these issues have forced to shut down editions in many cities and towns, and reduce number of pages in underperforming editions.

"Coronavirus had a disastrous effect in the last few weeks, given that advertising is the first step that affected companies stop or cut back on. Circulation and events have also been sharply hit. Hence, the already thinning pages have had to be cut back even further and publishers may very soon have to make the extremely difficult call to shut down already deeply loss-making editions of newspapers if this scenario persists," Gupta noted.

The letter further stated: "The triple whammy of Coronavirus, low advertising and higher import duty impacts two major industries: If the domestic newspaper industry collapses, then newsprint intake collapses altogether and hits newsprint manufacturers."

Gupta mooted that the demand for newsprint can only grow if the newspaper industry is revived. He also requested for a level playing field between foreign digital giants and domestic newspapers.

Last year, a 10% import duty was imposed on the newsprint taking the total custom duty on newsprint to 15%. In this year Budget, 10% of duty was removed, but the newspapers still had to pay 5% duty, which the INS has demanded must be waived off.

"Our recommendation: Urgent need for a two-year tax holiday on newspapers and to remove all import duty on newsprint," the letter stated.

Demands put forward by INS

Two-year tax holiday for newspapers.
Remove the remaining 5% import duty on newsprint so that the duty regime goes back to the duty-free situation prior to the 10% imposition last year.

AIFMP extends Print-packaging Pamex contract for another three editions

Sriraam Selvam — Thu, 23 May 2019 13:10:00

"We have been very happy with the progress of Pamex over the last two editions. This partnership with Print-Packaging.com is taking the exhibition to new heights. Now that the next three editions are in safe hands, we look forward to Pamex 2020, which will be one the best shows for printing and allied machinery in the country", said Ravindra Joshi, president, AIFMP.

AIFMP partnered PPCPL from 2015 and this contract renewal would take the partnership to a total of six editions of Pamex.

"We were looking forward to continue being the event partners for Pamex after the edition of January 2020. We are very excited to continue this partnership with AIFMP for three more editions. And now we look forward to gain more support and participation from the industry colleagues to make Pamex 2020 a huge success “, said Anil Arora, president, PPCPL.

Pamex 2020 will be held from 6-9 January at the Bombay Exhibition Centre, Goregaon.

The signed agreement held by Ravindra Joshi (l), president, AIPMP and Anil Arora (r), director, PPCPL

Reed Exhibitions acquires PackPlus India

PrintWeek India — Mon, 06 May 2019 13:32:00

Launched in 2006, PackPlus, an annual event held in New Delhi, has over the years expanded its portfolio to include PackPlus South, which is hosted in Bengaluru and Hyderabad and the India Packaging Show in Mumbai.

Gregory Zaraisky, CEO, Reed Exhibitions India, said, “For a long time we were intrigued by the evolution and progress of PackPlus, and we are delighted to take the baton and add our global experience, energy and resources to this exciting portfolio.”

Anil Arora, president of Next Events, said, “My wife Neetu and I are very proud of what we have developed and built. PackPlus was and remains our passion, and we are very happy to see the same passion in Reed Exhibitions. We feel confident and comfortable that the team, the events and the customers will further enrich their experiences from Reed Exhibitions’ global reach, commitment to customer value and investment in technology.”

The PackPlus acquisition follows Reed Exhibitions’ recent acquisitions of Big7 and Mack Brooks in a bid to further expand its presence in India.

Gregory Zaraisky said, “The acquisition of PackPlus marks our third deal in India this year and an important step in our strategy. We are extremely committed to the market and the industries we serve. We welcome the PackPlus team into our family and together we will write the next chapter in RX’s growth story in India.”

According to Arora, Next Events will continue to organise All India Federation of Master Printers’ Pamex exhibition, the next edition of which is slated for 6-9 January 2020.

BMPA organises impact session on laws and regulations

Abhishek Muralidharan — Fri, 05 Apr 2019 12:51:00

At the event, Pathik Shah of BP Shah spoke about the recent amendments on GST, such as the verification for the grant of new registration, the 6% scheme of the supplier of a service, and clarifications on sales promotion, amongst others. In addition, he also spoke about the merits of having different GST numbers for different manufacturing units.

Shah also spoke about Input Tax Credit (ITC)-related changes, such as the threshold limit for the composition scheme has been increased to Rs-1.5 crore from Rs-7 lakh, along with the updates regarding the changes in due dates, ITC credit availability, SGST, CGST and IGST.

He also highlighted the merits of the new Maharashtra VAT (MVAT) Amnesty scheme.

BMPA’s newest inclusion to its advisory panel, Hiral Chheda of Chheda Management Consultants, spoke about the latest amendments on labour laws and its impact on the industry, which shed light on the topics, such as Provident Funded (PF) allowances, Employees' State Insurance (ESI) age limit, and maternity benefits, amongst others.

Chheda provided insights about the supreme courts’ judgement on PF and guided about the dos and don’ts of the PF. He strongly advised avoiding remitting PF monthly contribution.

Sridhar of Online System highlighted the benefits for the active voltage conditioner for printing units. In addition, he also shed lights on servo voltage stabiliser, isolation transformer, Ferro transformer, and most importantly the key role of a UPS system. He also provided guidance about the importance of earthing system and its implementation.

The Toyo Ink team spoke about the Food Safety and Standards (Packaging) Regulations, 2018, and the Food Safety and Standards (Labelling and Display) Regulations, 2018.

Ram Kumar of Toy Ink said, “Printing, Inks, Stationary and Allied Products FSSAI amendments coming into effect from July 2019 prescribe that printing ink for use on food packages shall conform to IS 15495."

Iqbal Kherodawala of Printline Reproductions concluded the event with the vote of thanks. BMPA member Sanjay Patel of Param Packaging was the host for the event.

Panel discussion on ‘what to expect next in packaging’ packs a punch

Noel D'Cunha — Wed, 27 Mar 2019 13:51:00

Ramu Ramanathan conducted the 60-min discussion with panellist comprising of Ankit Tanna of Printmann, Amar Chhajet and Marzban Thanevala of Huhtamaki and Ashwin Maheshwari of Avenue Graphics.

These are challenging times for the print and packaging industry, but they are interesting ones, and there are great opportunities too. Paper, cardboard and flexible packages have a fundamental and vital role to play for a sustainable future.

Take a look at the demographics. 1.3-bn people - 1 of every 6 people on the planet live in India. 17.9% of this population is in the age range of 15-24 years and 41.08% in the 25-54 age-group. And importantly 27.34% of those who are in the 0-14 years will become a part of the consumer world in the not-so-distant future, where packaging will play a big part in their daily life. When you add the aspiration of the middle-class which is growing, one will see the reason why the packaging industry will continue to face relentless pressure from manufacturers, retailers, supply chain companies. They all need packaging for their products to look good for the consumer to pick it up; prevent damage, reduce cost and energy use.

It is in this context the panellists discussed how packaging will be produced, look, be demanded and consumed.

Highlights of discussions

Ankit Tanna: The reason for Printmann Group being in different verticals of printing and packaging is to provide complete packaging solutions to our customers under one roof.

Amar Chhajed: The need for thin materials in packaging is driven by the customer requirement. Going thinner is a viable solution for sustainability as it uses lesser materials but without comprising on the properties of the substrate.

Ashwin Maheshwari: For retail branding, it's not only printing cost but there are different resources which contribute in the retail design. Overall cost depends on various factors – the print, use of props, fabrications. And to comply with the PVC ban we have started using fabrics as well as the other PVC-free substrates.

Marzban Thanevala: The world will move towards flexible packaging having monomer substrates, and lacquers will play a crucial role in deciding the properties of the flexible packaging.

AIPIMA’s international conference discusses disruptive innovations and trends in print

Noel D'Cunha — Wed, 27 Mar 2019 13:12:00

The conference was hosted at Hotel Westin in Mumbai.

“We are all aware of how Uber, Airbnb, Zomato and Book My Show broke into an area of conventional business, to enter our daily life. Likewise, unconventional new social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn have created their own space out of nowhere changing the conventional communication system,” said BB Sen, president of AIPIMA. “The conference presentations made an attempt to suggest right strategies by which we can hope to deliver different options to the print industry.”

BB Sen, president of AIPIMA

Narendra Paruchuri, chairman and managing director of Pragati Offset delivered examples of how technology has been changing in his keynote presentation. Paruchuri said, “Personal computers displaced typewriters, email transformed and later social networking transformed our ways of communicating.” He added, “The moment we say disruption, we think about Uber, Airbnb, Ola, Netflix. By themselves, they would not be able to do much. It was Internet communication technology (ICT) and GPS which played an important role, and it’s the advancement of these two technologies which made these disruptions possible.”

Narendra Paruchuri, chairman and managing director of Pragati Offset

Paruchuri narrated how a software tool Pragati developed transformed the way estimates were prepared. Telephone moved from trunk calls to STD, which made communication easy. “I remember, the word in the printing circle was that, Pragati quotation STD par deta hai,” said Paruchuri. “The next change came with email, because of which the postman comes to us, once in a while and the greeting cards industry was sent for a toss.”

Back to discussing print technology, Paruchuri spoke of how his company moved from letter types to photocomposing system to the present day CTP, these technological innovations have only made print operations easy. “Disruptive technology for me is: the introduction of a product or service into an established industry that performs better and generally at lower costs than the existing offering thereby displaying the market leader in that particular market space in that industry,” Paruchuri said.

The keynote address was followed by presentation by Mohan Dewan, trademark attorney on global scenario on patents and India’s current contribution; Pankaj Bhardwaj, GM at Avery on substrates and coating; Ruediger Baur, head of global technical marketing at Clariant; SM Ramprasad, EVP for graphic arts at Fujifilm; Torsten Schmelich, regional head of technical services for graphic arts, Eckart; Amit Shah, managing director, Spectrum Scan; Indrajit Bhattacharya, technical service manager at Miwon on chemistry of LED UV curing inks; Jose Novo of Toyo Ink on sustainability; Anatoly Bytsenko of Full Systembau, and the highlight of the conference a panel discussion conducted by Ramu Ramanathan, editor of PrintWeek India with Ankit Tanna of Printmann, Amar Chhajet and Marzban Thanevala of Huhtamaki and Ashwin Maheshwari of Avenue Graphics.

Excerpts from the presentations

Narendra Paruchuri of Pragati Group
Narendra Paruchuri of Pragati Offset, guest of honour at the Ink Conference, in his key-note said, disruptive technology is the introduction of a product or service into an established industry that performs better, generally at lower costs than the existing offerings.

Parchuri was upbeat about offset technology: Offset print, which can give a number of print at less cost, will rule the roost. Digital printing will come into play only when there’s personalisation.

Dr Mohan Dewan of RK Dewan & Co.

Ink makers are the unsung heroes - because what they produced has stood the test of time, supplying fluid for written communication to mankind for centuries.

Dr Mohan Dewan: From India #Ink to Alois Senefelder to Offset to Kodak cameras, to Benny Landa’s indigo to 3D printing - all had ink as a core to the disruptions of its time.

Pankaj Bhardwaj of Avery Dennison

Innovation, smart packaging and sustainability are the three imperatives to focus on adopting disruptive technology in the packaging industry.

For sustainability, we need to move towards the circular economy and not the linear economy.

Dr Ruediger Baur of Clariant plastics and coatings

Inkjet and toner-based inks have a smaller but growing share in volume compared to traditional printing inks used and in digital printing, inkjet is growing at a faster rate than electrophotography.

SM Ramprasad of Fujifilm India

JetPress 720S is a perfect blend of offset and digital capabilities. It offers robustness of offset and customisation of digital.

Print volumes are going down. This very idea needs all stakeholders in the business to think out-of-the-box, come up with disruptive ideas. #Fujifilm has done it with the JetPress 750S, a press that can be used for commercial as well as packaging printing.

Amit Shah of Spectrum Scan

Sasta, tikav and sundar are the genetic imprints of India. Sasta is not cheap, but getting value for monies without compromising in quality; Tikav means getting it sasta , but durable and sunder is vibrant made possible by sasta and tikav.

Torsten Schmelich of Eckart

Introduced Heliosonic technology - an alternative for metallic pigments in digital printing. It is a nozzle-free technology creating a new market in digital printing owing to its speed and productivity.

Indrajit Bhattacharya of Miwon
Explained the chemistry of LED UV curing inks. As the polymerisation takes place using the LED UV lights, no harmful solvents are released into the environment.
Rapid curing, no VOCs, and reduced fire hazards are some of the many benefits of LED UV ink.

Jose Novo of Toyo Ink

Talked about the need for sustainability in the printing and packaging industry by citing the example of China, once the major contributor in VOC emissions has now implemented stringent rules to curb the emissions.

Anatoly Bytsenko Full Systembau

Talked about various ink dispensing solutions for the ink kitchens in the printing and packaging plants.

PS 19 is back at the NCPA on 24 January - The Noel D'Cunha Sunday Column

Noel D'Cunha — Sat, 08 Dec 2018 18:54:00

Noel D’cunha (ND): You say PS 19 is the best PS. Why so?
Faheem Agboatwala (FA): Look at the speaker line up. It’s by far the most holistic one we have come up with, at least since I have been involved with.

ND: What is the one stand-out session for you on 24 January?
FA: According to me, the “good to great” panel discussion is going to be the highlight.

ND: If you could tell us one thing about the panel discussion, what would it be?
FA: We have three very successful business leaders who have grown from hundreds of crores to thousands of crores of turnover - within their tenure (at the helm). To top it all, we have Sunanda Jayaseelan, anchor at Times Network who is going to take us through their momentous journey which made them go “good to great”. Our idea is to enthuse the printers in the audience that the time to grow exponentially has come.

ND: What is the trickiest part of hosting PS 19?
FA: Keeping the audience glued to their seats. It’s music to our ears when we hear a participant complaining that he couldn’t even take a loo break.

ND: What is the quality you seek when you identify speakers for PS 19?
FA: We whet speakers as much as six months in advance. However popular or senior they might be, we do meet them and go into depth. Accent and oratory skills take prominence over content.

ND: Which PS made you the happiest?
FA: Every PS has had its wow moments but deep down I feel this one is going to make me smile.

ND: Describe the role of BMPA in the planning of PS?
FA: Nine months of meticulous planning. Someone should record the madness in our preparatory meetings. From the sound to the music to the time taken for lunch - everything is checked and rechecked. From today to D-Day our team will be meeting every week.

ND: Your partners at PS 19.
FA: There are many partners, friends and allies. But there are three who stand out during PS 19. These are: ITC, Canon and KBA.

ND: One memorable talk at PS?
FA: The one by Sonam Wangchuk. It was straight from the heart!

ND: One thing about the Tata NCPA Theatre which a non-Mumbai person doesn’t know.
FA: This stage is a hallowed ground. From Pandit Bhimsen Joshi to Ustaad Bismillah Khan. It’s a privilege to stand on that stage and deliver performance or speech at the NCPA.

Print Summit 2019 - At a glance

PS has been hosted since 2005 by BMPA as an annual celebration on occasion of Printers’ Day. Over the years, the organisers have steered PS away from being print-centric to a more holistic event with an eclectic choice of entertainment too.

Content for PS19 is in place. Here’s the low down.

BK Shivani, a teacher from the Brahma Kumaris World Spiritual University, will talk about the journey of awareness and realisation

Don Newberry, ICP Industrial will explore Glossier Margins (innovation in packaging through coatings)

Inder Kumar Arora, Chanakya Mudrak, The Chanakya of Print motivates printers to do business on merits of their terms

Vivek Krishnani, managing director, Sony Pictures Entertainment India will deliver the PS Keynote by talking on Average is Normal

Mehul Shah, founder of Goa-based Encube Ethicals, will focus on Leaning Towards Lean

Panel Session GOOD 2 GREAT

Sunanada Jayseelan, editor and senior producer, Times Network,
Arokiaswamy Velumani, managing director, Thyrocare Technologies Ltd
Ankit Chona, managing director, HRPL - Havmor Restaurants & Huber & Holly
Pawan Poddar, director, Ashirvad Pipes
Animesh Kejriwal, founder and Pawan Bindal, co-founders, TimePay will discuss how Regular Receivables Make Better Bottomlines
Henrik Mueller-Hansen, Gelato will talk about a Disrupted Future in the print industry

On the sidelines of PS 19 with Faheem Agboatwala

The perception of print is formed by what people see every day, and that’s newspapers and magazines. But as you know, that’s just a tiny part of the sector. So, people have a view of what print is, and actually, it’s not, it’s a tiny sector of the total sector. And yes, they’re having a hard time – meanwhile, there’s all this growth going on elsewhere in the sector. Your view, Faheem?
FA: True. And the BMPA is going to announce something really exciting very soon - it’s called “make print great again”. Give us some time, we will be in a better position to answer this question. The problem is real, and we need a long-term solution.

Everyone talks about diversification because we’re trying to protect our turnover, protect our margin. Are commercial printers in Mumbai trying to do more for the people that are spending less with us?

FA: Commercial printers as a norm are more job workers than creators. As a rule, they would print what the designer or the client asked them to. Some have taken the plunge into creating products. I believe that is where the margins are, and this is where we should be moving to.

One big concern with the commercial print sector is: falling demand. This has resulted in what we call the head in the sand, ostrich mentality that something will turn up. Since you have chaired innumerable STB sessions, what is your view on the future of commercial print?
FA: Whatever can go E will go E is what I have said before. This is a reality. While the threat is real, this is a time for us to come up with innovative ideas. Let’s change ourselves to adjust to the changing environment. Let’s not wait for the environment to change us.

Digital print is different, because the model and pricing are different, and there is the opportunity to provide more variety and probably create value for print. The question is: are we (in India) doing it?
FA: Till such time that personalisation doesn’t get popular in India, digital won’t have an explosion. Once we taste the successes of personalisation, the market will look very different.

PS talks about disruptors in the e-commerce space. But there are also disruptors in the commercial space, wide-format, etc. The question is: has the business model changed and to what extent?
FA: To me even a print management company is a disruptor. We have to understand that every decade or so brings a big shift and we have to adapt to it. Let’s hear what Henrik Mueller-Hanse, CEO of Gelato has to say at PS19.

Some people say consolidation, others say business failure. What is really happening? And why has consolidation become such a bogie word in our industry?
FA: Consolidation is happening across industries. Print and packaging are not going to be exceptions. Selling out is a super exit strategy and buying to enhance one’s portfolio is again a smart business decision. We have seen this happening in the label space, and I foresee several such deals in the commercial space too. Printers must get their books in order.

Why so?
FA: Transparency is the first step to consolidation.

Many people ask us what is happening to print. We say, the cities where print is huffing and puffing have an astonishing percentage of business owners in our sector who are approaching retirement age. Where they aren’t on the cusp of retirement, the sector is thriving? You agree or no?
FA: Completely agree. Succession planning is a much-ignored subject within our industry.

What about automation? Paul Bradley’s session at PS and even two STB sessions spoke about staffing costs.
FA: Relatively cheap labour, expensive real estate and lack of skilled operators make Indian print companies shy away from advanced automation. The trend is slowly changing; I believe people will change due to the convenience offered by automation.

So, is automation an area that manufacturers can help in? Are they doing enough in India?
FA: AI is soon going to change what we know as automation, what we think is impossible will become possible with machine learning. Exponential changes are in the offing, and we must be prepared for the big shift.

Everyone says we listen to the clients when they say, ‘I’ve got this problem, how can you help me with value addition, etc.’ Question is: is investment driven/dictated by clients?
FA: Yes, in my opinion, most investments (at least in packaging) are driven by customer need.

Having a good business, making money and growing at a reasonable 5%-10% rate is no bad thing. But what should a print firm REALLY be doing?
FA: Moving from being “just” a printer to a marketing solution provider. Selling solutions rather than print is the future.

Print in Okhla joins hands to create an association

Rahul Kumar — Tue, 04 Dec 2018 22:43:00

MN Pandey of Avantika Printers while speaking exclusively to PrintWeek India said, “OPPA will provide a number of benefits to its members. The association will perform activities that would be unduly costly or time-consuming for an individual company to perform by itself.” Pandey informed this scribe that 125 members have already registered with the association.

Okhla is an industrial suburb of New Delhi in South Delhi and divided in three phases. Presently there are 100 print firms along with a host of MNCs, call centres, BPO, showrooms and media group operations in the area. A senior printer in Oklha said, "There’s a pattern in Delhi. Most print firms are growing, expanding or moving their business. Places like Faridabad, Noida, Greater Noida, Gurgaon, Kundli and Manesar are the new destinations. Things have become dire in Okhla."

That is why the creation of OPPA seems like a boon.

Kerala floods: KMPA distributes relief funds to victims

Sriraam Selvam — Wed, 24 Oct 2018 12:10:00

“We have distributed funds to seven of our printer members who were severely affected by the floods. Apart from them we have provided relief to 157 employees of our member organisations whose homes were damaged in the floods. Till date KMPA has distributed Rs 23 lakhs to our members and their employees,” said Biju Jose, honorary secretary of KMPA.

R Gopakumar, president of KMPA also handed over a cheque of Rs 2.5 lakhs to the district collector towards Chief Ministers’ Distress Relief Fund.

“In our effort to provide larger relief to the society, we have taken up notebook distribution drive to school students of the flood-affected areas,” said Jose.

As a symbolic gesture of the notebook drive, Safirulla handed over a few notebooks to Suresh, winner of best teacher award 2018 from the government of Kerala.

“We received generous contributions from several of our members, friends of members, various other individuals, fellow print associations, manufacturers and suppliers. Anaswara Offset donated the notebooks to KMPA. Likewise, there have been many kind gestures towards our association in the hour of crisis. Apart from this, we have received a message from the president of AIFMP confirming the federation's contribution to a total amount of Rs 5 lakhs which will be directly donated to the flood-affected members of KMPA,” said Jose.

The evening also witnessed Labelexpo 2018 roadshow conducted by Pradeep Saroha and team.

Nitin Shah: BMPA's Google-bhai - The Noel D'Cunha Sunday Column

Noel D'Cunha — Fri, 19 Oct 2018 18:48:00

What is your big vision for print in the next 12 months?
Ever since I joined BMPA seven years ago, I have observed that printing is not recognised as an industry nor is printing considered as a manufacturing process. That’s one of the reasons that print is not part of the Make in India initiative. My big vision for the next 12 months will be to give an impetus to the movement of getting printing recognised as an industry.

I would like to add when Goods and Service Tax (GST) was implemented in India, each and every industry participated in the discussion of implementing the tax structure. There was nobody from the print industry.

Hence, I will give it my best shot. If I do not succeed, I would at least try to make it easier for my successor to get it.

The Indian print business with over 1.8-lakh small, medium and large firms/companies is huge. How does the industry status matter?
I think the size of the industry should not matter. The printing industry should not be considered as a service industry. Ultimately, a huge Capex is involved in setting up the print plant and whatever is converted in these plants, 60-70% is raw material cost.

So what are the benefits?
If you have an industry status, representation on various forum, government or private, becomes strong.

How?
Take, for example, the World Business Conference. A small example. Have you seen anyone from our print industry representing India at the conference? Does our print industry have any representation in the global industrial level forums? No. Besides, representation on global levels, there are business benefits too. The benefits that are available to the manufacturing sector in India under the Make in India initiative can be availed by the print industry too.

Will you be working with other associations/Federation?
Yes, surely. The All India Federation of Master Printers has also taken up the matter with the government, and there are members like Arvind Mardikar with good connections in the present government, with whom I will also be working towards achieving our vision of industry status for printing.

But Nitin-bhai, this industry status business has been work in progress for quite some time. Where is the bottleneck?
I understand the required documentation has been submitted to the government, and the matter is being pursued. We still do not know where is the bottleneck, and that’s what I along with my industry colleagues, will be working on finding and solving.

Who is your core team at the BMPA and what are their strengths?
Faheem Agobatwala is an old hand at association matters and has been a past president too. He will be the secretary. The treasurer is Tushar Bhotica, who is very good as far as laws and finance are concerned. There are two vice-presidents. Iqbal Kherodawala is one. Kherodawala has been involved in educational and awareness activities of BMPA plus a key member of the Share-to-Benefit Forum. The second vice-president is Milap Shah, who is tech-savvy. BEAM and BMPA’s website activities are overseen by Shah.

Are there any new faces in the managing committee?
We are planning to co-opt a couple of members into the committee, which will be announced before the month-end. However, I know what you are hinting at.

Yes, it’s absolutely true that it’s the same faces that are on the managing committee the association for years, and it’s just not us. But it’s hardly the fault of these members. We invite other members to be more proactive, take interest in the activities of the association.

You said you joined the association seven years ago. How did you get involved?
Exactly, nobody told me to join. I attended a few meetings and I found it interesting. It gave me a chance to interact with a lot more people. One of my memories of those meetings was the camaraderie between the members, and how I was initiated into the fold. The same camaraderie continues.

As a president, I will have to spare at least two hours of my time per day for association activities. It’s not as easy as it seems to become the president of India’s most popular association. I’ve seen my immediate predecessors work and I have some big shoes to fill in.

The work will involve planning of Print Summit 2019, attending to administrative work of the association, interacting with other print association and allied industries associations, exhibitions and shows, and the like.

What are BMPA’s expectations from this government about print?
The AIFMP is working with the backing of its member associations, and we as a member are keen to form a common platform for GST. Today the challenge for the printers is the GST. Every product has a different nomenclature and the slabs of taxes are different. Take, for example, carton. A carton is a carton, whether it is a paperboard or corrugated. The moment you mention corrugation carton, the rate of duty is different. Again, on labour work, it is categorised as service, so the tax is 18%.

We are working on streamlining it with the government, and are hopeful of a solution.

What’s your typical customer?
We are into producing packaging for pharma, retail and food industries.

Which new print markets do BMPA members serve?
We have put our minds on a new project – Global Reach Programme. It’s spearheaded by Faheem Agboatwala and Mehul Desai. We have mooted a proposal for the members of BMPA, the printsellers. We are seeking joint ventures with overseas buyers. There are many overseas buyers who would want to purchase prints from other countries. We would like to offer the panel of BMPA printers for such buyers. There are certain criteria that the printers need to fulfil. Agboatwala and Desai are working on the project. The next stage will be scrutinising the printers’ capabilities, meeting the print buyers and match-making. It’s going to be a huge opportunity for our printers to enter into global business.

Nitin Bhai: What’s your USP?
Being plus one on ideas and delivering it. Before a customer asks, we are ready with a solution, and also fulfil it.

What equipment below 10k is something all printers should have?
Unfortunately, there’s no equipment which I can recall costs below 10k. Only desk-top printers are available, but they are general print devices.

What’s been BMPA's proudest achievement in the past few years?
We have been able to narrow the gap in communication and definitely professional skills through platforms like Share-to-Benefit, Seekho Aur Samjo, and Carton Forum. Printers have started picking up the phone and discussing it with each other.

For example?
Collective buying is one. Second, there are printers who have started working on a use-equipment model. For example, I have an equipment which the other does not have, but the other printer has the customers whose jobs he cannot serve with his existing equipment. We work jointly for that customer. It’s a win-win situation for both of us. It helps reduce competition, as well as Capex pressure.

Will it work, because every printer we meet talks about margins, cut-throat competition?
It’s a talk in every industry. Today the world is growing, the requirements are also growing, and so are the suppliers. The competition was there fifty years ago, it’s there today, and will remain fifty years later. But if you are quality conscious, price conscious and if you run your business ethically, whatever is the competition, you will survive.

Would you walk out of a deal if it does not work in favour of your business?
We have declined many print jobs if it is not sustainable. If any company has to grow, they have to take into account their current working as well as future plans. If you are not able to function with a margin of at least 10% you will not be able to survive for long, leave alone grow.

With that kind of margins, how can you manage rejections?
In the good old days there were fewer print players but competitive. However, the onus was on timely supply, quality was secondary. Today the situation is very different. The customers want their prints yesterday, and quality has to be top notch. This has led to bringing in technology that is fast and accurate, eliminating or detecting errors, which means also most zero rejections. Those who cannot manage this kind of technology upgrades will perish under the burden of rejections.

You have been talking about technology, buying such equipment too. For a equipment, say a press, which cost around Rs 5-crore plus, what kind of job feeds does it require to breakeven?
If you are talking about an offset, it depends on which press do you have – a UV or conventional. It should produce at least one-lakh sheets per day on conventional and around 80,000 sheets on UV, for it to achieve a breakeven in about seven years. The more it produces, the fewer years it will be for the breakeven.

Further, there are printers, particularly in smaller towns, who are opting for a four-colour press with coater. Wouldn’t an offline coater, which is available at one-fourth of the cost, be more affordable?
I see it this way. What would bother me – a one-time cost or a recurring cost? For me it would be the recurring cost. So, if most of my print jobs are with the coating, an online coater would make more sense. Print is a tricky business. You have to deal with the different range of substrates, run them at different speeds. Running them online means, I am reducing my cost on an additional set of personnel to run the offline machine; reduce waste when moving the printed sheets to the coater, and then have it registered; save on electricity of the additional kit, plus space;

What’s your team’s favourite print conference?
Print Summit. And if you invite the entire committee to the PrintWeek India Awards, it would be our other favourite event.

Programme for Seekho Aur Samjo (SaS) at GIPT and SIES.
Iqbal Kherodawala is the coordinator of Seekho Aur Samjo programme.

GIPT and SIES are two printing colleges in and around Mumbai. Every alternate month we the Seekho and Samjo programme, in which students of these colleges, as well as managerial personnel and operators working on print shopfloors, are invited to participate. Here we discuss print shopfloor topics, mostly related to machines and materials. It’s a printer-driven activity, and it’s mainly hands-on. The teachings here come from experiences.

In addition, we are planning to hire a mechanical and electronic engineer, who will be on BMPA’s payroll. The two will visit one print company in an industrial print estate and invite other print companies’ executives and discuss troubleshooting at the shopfloor. We will also look into providing the services of the two engineers services on an individual basis at a later date.

A small note about Crisil index for print industry and what Sanjay Patel has achieved
Cardex and Pridex are the two indices developed by Sanjay Patel. AIFMP in association with Crisil launched these indices, which reflect the fluctuation in the commercial and packaging printing segments’ costs within the printing industry such as raw materials, finance, selling and administration.

Cardex is an index for carton packaging and Pridex for commercial printing. It’s been hard work for him. Crisil publishes the details every quarter. And while the two indices are available, it’s still at a nascent stage, and not being used as widely as we expected because according to my information, two or three in a hundred are using it. That’s not an ideal number. For Cardex and Pridex to succeed, all the stakeholders will have to work basis these indices.

Cardex and Pridex are very good tools which the print-packaging companies must use, refer to these indices to form a cost structure and prepare the quote. The prices will be higher or there could be a reduction, depending what the indices’ number reflect. There will be uniformity in pricing and in the long run it will benefit all.

BMPA’s Carton Forum curated by Tushar Bhotica
Most of the print owners are members of the Carton Forum, because many are engaged in commercial printing as well as packaging converting. And like the Share-to-Benefit Forum, the Carton Forum is also growing in popularity thanks to Tushar Bhotica. Technical, industry standards for price and process, financial health and related issues, tax matters, vendor support, and skilled manpower, among others are discussed on a one-to-one basis.

Highlights of the international industrial study tour
It’s a delegation of 20-25 print CEOs who visit international print equipment manufacturing plants where we see firsthand machines being manufactured. These are the machines which we are using. We see how they are manufactured, the set-up, best practices that are followed at the plant, which we can implement in our own print plants. We also get a glimpse of where the technology is heading towards, and helps analyse and plan our future investments.

These international industry study tours also include some beta sites where machines of these companies are installed. So, we get to learn how these print companies manage print operations.

And believe me, I have seen many of those who are part of these study tour implement what they see. I have seen printers from Vasai implement things they learned during the tour.

The young and tech-friendly vice-president Milap Shah is streamlining BMPA’s digital presence. How?
Yes, there’s more information on the website now, and regular updates on what’s happening in the print industry including government regulations for print companies.

More about BEAM?
It’s part of BMPA’s digital presence. It’s a bundle of services, which operates via the EDM Push, website updates, SMS, and WhatsApp.

KMPA donates notebooks to flood-affected students

Sriraam Selvam — Fri, 28 Sep 2018 12:37:00

A team led by R Gopakumar, president of KMPA and O Venugopal vice president south of AIFMP along with Biju Jose honorary secretary, KMPA, G Venugopal, Shaji Mon and R R Babuji handed over the books to the students.

Meanwhile, in a recent press conference, KMPA estimated Rs 150-crores as the current losses for the printers with the long-term losses expected to go up to Rs 400-crores from the recent devastation from floods in Kerala.

According to the association’s initial report, around 75 big and small printing units have been severely affected by the floods. The association appealed to the Government for moratorium and assistance in bank loans.

“A majority of the printing presses located in Aluva, Chalakudy, Perumbavoor, Cheranalloor, Eloor, and Udyogamandal suffered damage. Apart from it printing presses in Kozhikode, Pathanamthitta, and Alappuzha also were inundated,” said O Venugopal.

Kerala floods: A nightmare for print - The Noel D'Cunha Sunday Column

Noel D'Cunha — Sat, 25 Aug 2018 12:04:00

The news from Kerala is grim.

A printer who called me (requesting not to disclose his identity) said, "Kerala had a century's rain in 72 hours plus the dams were opened. This sort of calamity happens once every hundred years. Cleaning up and repairs are going to be really tough."

R Gopakumar, president, KMPA, said, "As the flood waters have slowly started to recede, the magnitude of the disaster is unfolding in front of our eyes. The KMPA committee has personally seen printing units completely or partially submerged with their owners and employees homeless. For most of such brother printers, their life’s work and earnings have been destroyed in a few moments of nature’s fury. A large number of them are in relief camps without access to even basic necessities. Without our generous support, most of our fellow printers will not be able to come back to life at all."

The KMPA team has been visiting the industrial print areas in Kerala. Their assessment about the damage to the state's print and packaging units is Rs 100 cr. The KMPA says, rehabilitation work will be daunting. There’s massive threat of air- and water-borne diseases.

Hundreds of print firms affected
Meanwhile, the information trickling in is heart-wrenching. Some of the notable firms are Sterling Print House in Ernakulam; InDot in its entire five centres across Kerala especially Chalakudy; Nirmala Offset in Chalakudy; SN Offset in Alwaye; the newspaper printer Cochin Printech in Ernakulam.

From the initial assessment, approximately ten print firms with four-colour sheetfed offset press or a web offset press, have been impacted plus more than seventy firms that possess a mini offset. In addition, the floods and its aftermath have affected process houses in Kerala and caused the displacement of workers whose homes have been destroyed.

While there are plenty of practical steps you can take to help protect your business from natural disasters, at the end of the day, all you can do is minimise the risk or put plans in place to mitigate the impact after the fact. Because, as recent events in Kerala have proven, unless you possess Moses-like powers to hold back the floodwaters around your factory there’s not a lot you can do.

CEOs of major firms are looking at the business insurance plan; plus informing customers and staff members. A KMPA member mentioned, "We are keeping customers and other stakeholders informed as the business gets back on track. Also, we are helping out to spread the word about any support service."

Lessons from the Mumbai floods
There are some lessons from the Mumbai floods in 2005 which can be studied. It may help in taking steps on how to prevent a disaster later.

For example, post-floods in Mumbai many firms realised "the true worth of the shopfloor staff”. Every worker pitched in. Today some of those workers are star employees and future managers of the business.

The Mumbai floods was a good indicator of how more than 50% of small businesses and the self-employed do not have a plan in place to cope with potential disruption risks to their business operations or their supply chains.

In all this, P Sajith of Welbound Worldwide has a word of caution, "Many a time it is not just the flood and water that destroys machines and lead to accidents. It is our anxiety to start up and complete indifference to safety procedures that need to be followed."

He says, "The more time you spend in inspecting, cleaning and drying the machine and starting up will help you reduce the damages. That can be very expensive and lead to a huge loss of productive hours."

In this sense, Welbound Technical Service has agreed to support the printers of Kerala affected by the flood, to help put back the machines into working conditions where ever the original equipment suppliers’ support is not forthcoming. Sajith says, "They will work with the printer's maintenance team, operators and local engineers and guide them through the process. Both Arvind Kalasur and Baban Khot have experience in bringing the machines back to life from such conditions."

This is a good step.

TechNova's S Swarnangka says his company’s outreach effort is its silent crusade. He says, "The TechNova Imaging Systems has been visiting all the major flood affected customers and working together to bring them back to a normal working condition."

Swarnangka explains, "Our team is suggesting simple tips to firms. As everyone knows, the electricity supply is a crucial part of any business to keep the workplace safe in the event of a flood. We feel it is essential to raise fuse boxes, electrical plug points and wires at a height of 1.5 metres or further up above the floor level. Valuable electronic items are best stocked away safely on higher shelves when not in use."

He adds, Sometimes a simple wooden pallet can help "protect the paper". He states, "We are distributing these pallets to affected customers."

Safety above all
A simple PrintWeek India tip is safety.

Your first priority is safety; avoid re-entering your premises until you are sure they are safe from contaminated water, structural damage and faulty mains electricity. Photograph flood damage to the building and equipment and check with your insurer before salvaging goods and repairing the damage – they may recommend tradespeople.

P Sajith of Welbound Worldwide, says, “I think more help will be needed in rebuilding lives of many of them who have lost everything. It depends if the government does a fair and efficient job in distributing the funds for rehabilitation. If there are issues, we will seek the help of the print community across India. As of now, basic things like food, medicines, diesel, etc are needed which a lot of agencies are organising.” He adds, “The real impact will be after some time and by then the media and the world would have lost interest in this issue. That's when we can do something. I am really grateful and proud of the print community for responding like this.”

Companies like Welbound, APL and Komori are among the first to provide assistance to the Kerala printers. Welbound has assured to offer free maintenance service; APL will be providing with the replacement of machines that have been affected by the floods, while Komori India has set up a call centre for the aid of its customers. CP Paul of APL Machinery said, “We humbly announce free service and reinstallations of the machines in Kerala which have been affected by the floods. We have more than 200 machines running in the state. This is our small effort to help the print fraternity."

Komori India’s deputy managing director Sangam Khanna, informs “The call centre will be operational from Monday, the 27 of August next week. The call will be picked up during 9am to 6pm. Please do not hesitate to contact us.”

Komori India has a direct presence in India.

Onam celebrations in Kerala are round the corner. But this year, the celebrations will be muted.

For one, everyone is in rehab and repair mode. Two, there is a huge shortage of workers. Most of them are busy rebuilding their homes - and lives.

KMPA's appeal: to put it all back, together

The Executive committee members of KMPA have completed the first round visit to our fellow members' whose businesses are affected by the floods. As you can very well guess, it was a shocking experience to see printing shop floors full of water and dirt, machines wet and dirty, with a huge stock of raw materials and finished goods completely destroyed. In a couple of instances, we felt choked up and eyes blurred with tears as we struggled to comfort friends of decades who has just lost pretty much everything that matters. We pray to God almighty that none of our printer brothers suffer a similar plight in future.

Another dimension to the crisis is the plight of the employees whose houses are damaged, some beyond repair, with the onus now resting on the employer to help them rebuild. The task ahead of our printer brothers is of herculean proportions. In order to bring them back to their feet as soon as possible, we need to assure them of our unstinting support.

Kerala Master Printers Association has always been in the front line to lend a helping hand on such occasions. As our parent body, we urge All India Federation of Master Printers to urgently consider this as a request from KMPA to contribute generously towards the relief efforts. We also appeal to AIFMP to forward this letter of appeal to all affiliate Associations and request them also to join us in our efforts to bring our brothers back to their feet. As fellow printers, we appeal to you to send in your generous donations towards this rebuilding process.

Please send in your generous contribution to:

Account Name: Kerala Master Printers Association
Bank: State Bank of India
Branch: Kaloor, Kochi
Account No: 30477931783
IFSC Code: SBIN0008621

TechNova helpline - +91 96000 72489 (Ram Kumar), +91 98473 42011 (Binu Punnen)

Komori India Call Centre - +91 9599068152 (Ms Heena)

Kerala in rehab mode, as print bodies across India unite

Amogh Dikshit — Mon, 20 Aug 2018 13:35:00

R Gopakumar, president, KMPA, said, “As the flood waters have slowly started to recede, the magnitude of the disaster is unfolding in front of our eyes. The KMPA committee has personally seen printing units completely or partially submerged with their owners and employees homeless. For most of such brother printers, their life’s work and earnings have been destroyed in a few moments of nature’s fury. A large number of them are in relief camps without access to even basic necessities. Without our generous support, most of our fellow printers will not be able to come back to life at all.”

P Sajith of Welbound Worldwide said, “I think more help will be needed in rebuilding lives of many of them who have lost everything. It depends if the government does a fair and efficient job in distributing the funds for rehabilitation. If there are issues, we will seek the help of the print community across India. As of now basic things like food, medicines, diesel, etc are needed which a lot of agencies are organising.” He added, “The real impact will be after some time and by then the media and the world would have lost interest in this issue. That's when we can do something. I am really grateful and proud of the print community for responding like this.”

Companies like Welbound and APL were among the first to provide assistance to the Kerala printers. Welbound has assured to offer free maintenance service and APL will be providing with the replacement of machines that have been affected by the floods.

CP Paul of APL Machinery said, “We humbly announce free service and reinstallations of the machines in Kerala which have been affected by the floods. We have more than 200 machines running in the state. This is our small effort to help the print fraternity.”

Premier print and manufacturing federations like the AIFMP and IPAMA have galvanised their members to aid and assist. Arvind Mardikar, honorary general secretary of AIFMP said, “We are aware of the situation and trying everything possible through AIFMP. On the last two occasions during the J&K and Chennai floods, the handsome contribution was made by AIFMP plus we collected funds from various affiliate Associations. It may take a little while but we are on the job.”

Water-logging on the streets of Kerala

Meanwhile, more than seven hundred paper traders who had collected for the FPTA Conference and the Centenary Celebrations of the CPTA in Kolkata collected funds which were handed over to the Coimbatore association to disperse in the affected districts of Kerala. Thanks to a calibrated plan along with co-ordination with the locals in Kerala, the paper traders are distributing medicines, water, baby food, biscuits, clothing, etc.

According to firsthand reports that PrintWeek India received from colleagues in the industry from the state of Kerala, it has been fishermen who are used to battle-out the heavy tides of the sea used their experience to rescue the people.

Initially, they were helpless for a day since they couldn’t handle the current with single engine boats. Later they analysed the issue and mobilised 100 double engine boats with around 300 skilled swimmers and opened their own control room under Kerala Swathanthra Malsya Thozhiali Union (SMTU) and Kerala Independent Fishworkers Union and started communicating between the district administration, Disaster Management Team, Indian Coast Guard and Police in the flood-affected region. The SMTU mobilised about 300 skilled swimmers from coastal villages for this operation) and a local guide. These rescue ops ferried 20-25 people in a trip. In last couple of days, they rescued about thousands of lives from the high-risk disaster zone.

Despite the damages to their own fibre boats, outboard engines, minor to major injuries to the fishermen, they are swimming against all odds with a mission fuelled by passion and commitment to save thousands of lives.

Recent updates about the tragedy

The death toll in Kerala has crossed four hundred lives since 9 August.

Kerala was struck with the impact of unusual southwest monsoon, recording the wettest monsoon in the recent years. The state has experienced about 15 days of rainfall in the short span of 40 hours between 13 August and 16 August. The worst affected day was 16 August, when the state received more than nine times the average rainfall resulting in 50 fatalities on the day, primarily due to landslides.

At the beginning of June, Kerala experienced around 25% less rain than the average but since then the amount of rainfall has skyrocketed. For the next 10 weeks, the rainfall received was more than the average rainfall. District-wise, in the last three days, Idukki and Ernakulam topped the charts with 80% and 47.5% more rain than the average.

The central government has offered Rs 500 crore to the state as a result of this tragedy. According to media reports, more than seven lakh people have been rescued and relocated to the relief camps, there were hundreds waiting for the help of the rescue squad.

As many as 7,24,649 people were in 5,645 relief camps across the State, according to Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan. All those stranded in flood-hit areas would be rescued soon.

Also read, Kerala floods: KMPA issues an SOS

IPAMA’s Dayaker Reddy nominated vice president of Global Print

Sriraam Selvam — Wed, 01 Aug 2018 10:02:00

An engineer by profession, Reddy is the chief executive officer of Gutenberg Machinery Manufacturers and managing director of Omsri Saivani Secure Print. He is also serving as the president of Asia Print, GC member of AIFMP, coordinator for Telangana Offset Printers Association (TOPA), mentor for Bharatiya Yuva Shakti Trust (BYST), Hyderabad, expert committee member for community colleges – Government of Telangana and syllabus committee member for Government Institute of Printing Technology (GIPT).

Global Print is a federation that brings together a global constituency of printing industry members. It was created with the objective of furthering the common interests and mutual understanding of manufacturers of printing, paper-making and converting machinery, equipment and consumables. Among the priorities of Global Print is the collection of relevant statistical and market data. Associations from China, UK, USA, Japan, Italy, France, Germany, Switzerland, Spain and India constitute the membership of the federation.

Read the Dayaker Reddy interview in the Sunday Column here: Print industry's captain from Hyderabad - The Noel D'Cunha Sunday Column

Picture Gallery: What's behind the Paper Day drive by FPTA?

Amogh Dikshit — Wed, 25 Jul 2018 14:53:00

Publishers urged to explore digital platforms to find new markets

Dibyajyoti Sarma — Fri, 13 Jul 2018 12:31:00

The idea behind the conclave was to encourage publishers to embrace the emerging technologies in the digital space to find new avenues to market their content and find hitherto untapped customers.

The conclave was moderated by Dr Shantanu Ganguly, fellow, knowledge management division, TERI and the presentations were made by Garima Babbar, head of strategic alliances, education and skill development, South Asia, Adobe Systems and Dr Priya Rai, university librarian, National Law University.

The use of digital in publishing has gone through a sea-change since the first Kindle was launched some 11 years ago. Now, eBooks are just a small component of the story. Now, the buzzword is interconnectivity. Now, publishers need to develop content which are platform-neutral so that the same content can be read or heard or viewed, in print or mobile phone or laptop or other digital devices. Now, the focus is on Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (AR).

It’s especially important for education publishers to embrace these emerging technologies as a majority of the students today are digital natives who are more adept in finding information online on their devices than reading a printed book.

“Therefore, it’s paramount for publishers today to explore the emerging technologies and harness their benefits to their advantages,” Prasad Rao, CMD, MAP Systems, said in his welcome address.

The fourth industrial revolution is upon us and it’s not necessarily a bad thing. There will be disruptions and its time publishers learned to work with it.

“The way knowledge is consumed has changed today and this can lead to exciting possibilities. With the emerging technologies, there will be new players in the value chain. But there will also be new products and processes for publishers to explore,” Group Captain PA Naidu, additional director general, Prasad Bharati, said.

Displaying the possibilities of what the emerging technologies can do, Subhasis Ganguli, director, MAP Systems, demonstrate a visiting card embedded with AR image recognition, which can be scanned by a smartphone to view the details.

Saying that with digital technologies we add more data in two days than what humanity has produced from the beginning until 2017, during his presentation on ‘An agile roadmap for the future,’ Ganguly stressed on a customer-oriented approach to business.

Meanwhile, Babbar spoke about the approaches to educating students for the future and Rai spoke about issues on digital rights management.

MAP Systems offers services in domains such as digital conversation (book conversation, XML conversation, XBRL conversation, digital achieving); virtual reality (AR and VR); digital pre-press (typesetting, indexing, document scanning, OCR conversation and digital graphics, including 3D services.

Pragati's innovative print techniques for packaging

PrintWeek India — Wed, 11 Jul 2018 10:48:00

Printing might seem like a tiny component of the marketing puzzle in a large campaign for a particular brand but it is important to guarantee full attention. P Narendra of Pragati Pack feels that "the focus on packaging appearance at the point-of-sale is huge and new and innovative print techniques have revolutionised the possibilities available to companies and enable each one of them to promote their brands in an original way."

Today, a number of options are available when it comes to innovative printing techniques. P Narendra splits their necessity in four categories: on-shelf appeal, anti-counterfeiting solutions, eco-friendly solutions and smart packaging.

On-shelf appeal
The primary purpose of packaging is to preserve the product, but packaging can be used by companies as an instrument for promoting the product as well. A good packaging helps to identify and differentiate products to the consumers. "The sheer size of the packaging industry along with the increasing consumer choices suggests that it might be hard to make a product stand out on the shelf," says Narendra. It is the special shape of packaging that can make it stand out from the predominantly cuboid competition on the shelf. "A great example is the iconic Toblerone pack for the legendary triangular Swiss chocolate," says Narendra. Then there is the 360-degree window carton that can create an all-round visibility of the product or the magnetic flip-top packing box which not only has a luxurious feel to it but also "provides a sophisticated opening experience," says Narendra.

What further enhances the appeal of the packaging box is the use of material and effects. "Packaging material has a strong impact on buying behaviour," says Narendra. "The use of metallic substrates has become a part of the mainstream. There is a need for newer and more eye-catching solutions. At the same time, the new solution must possess the scalability of getting deployed in projects with large quantities." The holographic lens is used in register with printed objects for eye-catching effects. Then there is the metallic, pearlescent and iridescent effect achieved through gravure, refractive patterns where the movement is seen on the patterns when the view angle of the packaging changes, foil stamping with 3D blocks and the contrast between gloss and matt that can be achieved through the use of varnishes. The feel of the packaging also plays an important role. Different surfaces should be felt while holding the packaging, making it particularly effective in picking out certain elements of an image. "It was found that a pack with multi-sensorial impressions have a recall of 60%," says Narendra. If only a single sensory impression is conveyed, the recall value is halved. The use of tactile and olfactory senses can create an additional impact.

Anti-counterfeiting solutions

In today's scenario, counterfeiting is believed to be causing industry-wide losses of 15-30%. This figure might be true for the sales but what probably doesn't get accounted for in figures is the adverse impact on the brand. "Use of anti-counterfeiting measures can be two-fold: overt and covert," says Narendra. The overt measures can be utilised by everyone, including the end user, for verification of the product. These measures can add different levels of visual appeal too. "Many overt anti-counterfeiting measures should be seen as adding to the shelf appeal of the product," says Narendra.

These measures, according to Narendra, includes holographic varnishes, micro-embossed patterns, reflection embossing where the different text is visible at different viewing angles and invisible inks that react to either the sunlight or the body temperature providing an easy check for the end user. The covert measures are effects which are not visible to the end user. These can be verified only by authorised personnel using different methods like hidden images or text that can only be visible through a special lens, anti-copy where photocopying reveals the hidden text, encoded values that are known only to authorised personnel and that change with every batch.

Eco-friendly solutions

An environment friendliness of the pack is no more simply at the level of corporate social responsibility (CSR). It has become a legal mandate now. In many cases, government policies and consumer preferences are demanding that brands implement sustainable packaging practices to reduce the environmental impact. "Many solutions that are required for making packaging attractive laminate plastic to paper. This increases the difficulty of recycling the pack," says Narendra. "There are eco-friendly and eye-catching effects that are being introduced. One of them is the cast and cure that creates holographic effects by utilising only varnish. Other solutions include gravure for laying down metallic or iridescent effects and metal transfer to the board."

Smart packaging
This new trend in packaging enhances its functionality and involves a combination of specialised materials, science and technology. Various features can be embedded into packaging in order to provide traceability for the brand owner, enable interaction with the end user, ensure supply chain compliance and at the same time be able to provide the consumer with additional information about the product.

Narendra feels that the implementation requires two major components. An ability to mark each pack with unique data that can be supplied by the printer or added at the packing site through laser or inkjet technology. The second component involves enabling the IT systems to utilise the above unique data. This can be done with back-end systems that can integrate with Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and the end-users. “It can further result in a user interaction that can begin with a simple SMS and lead all the way to smartphone applications to collect information,” concludes Narendra.

Ram Sehgal to be honoured with the AAAI Lifetime Achievement Award

PrintWeek India — Mon, 09 Jul 2018 09:56:00

This is the highest honour to be given to an individual in India for his/her outstanding contribution to the advertising industry.

This award is being bestowed on Ram Sehgal in recognition of his outstanding leadership and contribution to the advertising industry; in literally establishing Delhi as a premier centre for advertising in India – it was this foundation that later led JWT Delhi to become the largest office in India and among the largest in the world; in moulding ‘Contract Advertising’ into one of the finest agencies of the day in so much that it was fiercely independent and a worthy rival to its own parent HTA; in attracting and nurturing some of the finest talent to ‘Contract Advertising’ across disciplines; in leading Contract to be recognised as a powerhouse for strategy and creative; in leading AAAI and establishing one of the finest training programs in the industry ever; in setting the highest standards of professionalism that became the standard for generations that followed; and not in the least for his immeasurable contribution to social causes.

Nakul Chopra, President, AAAI, stated that Sehgal has been "a role model for generations in our industry – he is a legend in his own right. The manner in which he led Contract to become one of India’s finest and most respected agencies became an inspiration for the entire industry to try and emulate. He richly deserves this honour”.

This article was first published on Campaign India.

Printers Guild of Vidarbha's GC meeting to live stream

PrintWeek India — Fri, 06 Jul 2018 11:50:00

Eminent speakers for the meet include Narendra Paruchuri of Pragati Offset, Sanjay Arora of Shell Advertising, CA Shriniwas Joshi of CVK & Associates, Avinash Kawadkar of TechNova Imaging Systems and Ramu Ramanathan of PrintWeek India.

At the event, Paruchuri will be speaking on the topic "printing is an art", Arora will be discussing on "branding as profits, and Joshi and Kawadkar will talk on "Current economic scenario and future" and "environmental concerns and standardisation of chemistry used in press room". In the final presentation, Ramanathan will be highlighting the top 25 demo centres across India.

The event will conclude with a musical event and a gala dinner.

Organisers have also arranged for the live streaming of the session. To join the session, attendees need to log on to the site www.aifmp.org or www.aifmp.com at 3pm on Saturday, 7 July 2018 and click on the window "Live from Nagpur".

KMPA to host AIFMP’s Romancing Print 2018

Sriraam Selvam — Tue, 19 Jun 2018 16:48:33

The daylong programme will be inaugurated by Prameela Sasidharan, chairperson, Palakkad Municipality and AMSG Ashokan, president, AIFMP will preside over the proceedings.

“In the last AIFMP GC meeting held at Kolkata, it was decided to hold Romancing Print 2018, in Kerala. Active participation of all south Indian affiliate associations of AIFMP is expected. We are also expecting a wide spectrum of the fraternity for this event,” said Rajesh G, honorary secretary of KMPA.

CN Ashok, managing director of Autoprint will be delivering the keynote address followed by a talk on the future of printing by Kulakkada Pradeep, print consultant and CEO, Future Schoolz. Thomas George, motivational speaker will focus on scientific costing.

Dr B Kumar, HOD, printing department, Anna University, Dr Amruthraj H Krishnan, HOD, printing and media engineering, MIT, Manipal, Dr TKS Lakshmi Priya, HOD, printing department, Avinasilingam University, Coimbatore and C Dinachandran, principal, Institute of Printing Technology and Government Polytechnic College, Shoranur, Palakkad, P Deepu, HOD- printing, Calicut University will take part in a panel discussion on the topic "Print Education – Today and Tomorrow’. Dr Rajendrakumar Anayath, vice chancellor, DCRUST, Haryana will moderate the discussion.

“On 18 June 2018, we held a meeting at Palakkad to have a direct interaction with the printers from that area. The main agenda of the meeting was the discussion of Romancing Print 2018 seminar. The preparations for the event was discussed in detail and KMPA members from the Palakkad area have pledged full support to ensure the success of this seminar” said Rajesh.