The 29th edition of the Indian Printers Summit, Wan-Ifra’s annual event for the Indian print community, was held in Chennai on 17 and 18 November 2021. The “Best in Print Asia 2021” Awards were presented, and a guide to print using 40gsm newsprint, Wan-Ifra’s newest Special Report, was released at the event.
After a string of online events and conferences, this year’s Wan-Ifra Indian Printers Summit saw more than 100 media executives from around 20 organizations in attendance. Attendees had the opportunity to learn from print media experts and interact with suppliers who reviewed their upcoming products and services during the event.
Best in Print Asia 2021 Awards presented
The event hosted the “Best in Print – Asia 2021 Awards” ceremony to recognize the continent’s best newspaper printers. This award showcases the publications’ ability to print at the highest quality according to ISO (ISO 12647 and ISO 2846) and Wan-Ifra standards.
The award had three categories, based on newspaper circulation numbers. United Printing & Publishing’s The National bagged the Gold award in the “Less than 50K circulation” category.
Bennett Coleman & Co.’s The Times Of India (Lucknow and Ahmedabad) won the Bronze and Silver awards in the “50K – 150K Circulation” category. Hong Kong’s Apple Daily took home the Gold award in this category.
For the “More than 150K Circulation” category, The Times of India (Navi Mumbai and Mumbai) bagged the Silver and Gold, while ABP’s Anandabazar Patrika won the Bronze award.
Newest Special Report released
Earlier in the day, the “Guide to print using 40gsm newsprint”, Wan-Ifra’s latest Special Report, was released by the World Printers Forum Indian Chapter. The report provides practical guidance to migrate to print using lower grammage newsprint. The report is available for download on the Wan-Ifra website.
Indian Printers Summit 2021
The summit was a packed day of networking and in-person meetings with product and solution providers to discuss business and the latest developments in the industry. Attendees also had the opportunity to learn and exchange ideas with panelists from media organizations across India.
One of the key panel discussions reflected on optimizing operational and capital expense, and strategies that work best for managing assets and new investments. It hosted RD Bhatnagar (chief technology officer, DB Corp), BS Shesh (vice president, Supply Chain, HT Media), Lakshmivenkatraman RP (former head – Technical & Production, THG Publishing), and Amit Khurana (COO – Newspaper Group, TechNova). The panelists reminded the participants about the vital needs for collaborative approaches and emphasized the print industry’s responsibility to nurture talent as a vital element of their long-term prosperity.
The second panel covered product and process innovation, and how companies can recalibrate their thinking prowess. The panel hosted Snehasis C Roy (director – Technical, Bennett Coleman & chairman, World Printers Forum India Chapter ), Pradyumna Mitra (general manager – Engineering, ABP), Peter Britto (deputy general manager, The Times of India), and Dr. K Subramanian (senior vice president, Ashok Leyland).
The two-day event was co-sponsored by The Indian Newspaper Society. Other sponsors included Manroland Goss, TechNova, Orient Web Offset Presses, Baldwin, Krause, and QIPC-EAE. Supporting publications included All About Newspapers, gxpress, Indian Printer and Publisher, Press Ideas, and RIND Survey.
The complete details of the program are available at https://wan-ifra.org/events/printers-summit-2021/. More information from the conference can be found on Twitter with the hashtag #IPS2021.
