IPAMA elects members for the Governing Council – 2019-21

Building the Indian graphic arts industry

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The IPAMA members after announcing the newly elected members of the Governing Council.
The IPAMA members after announcing the newly elected members of the Governing Council.

Elections for the Governing Council 2019-21 of Indian Printing Packaging and Allied Machinery Manufacturer’s Association (IPAMA) concluded on 16 October 2019. The ballot papers were opened at 11:30 a.m. on 17 October 2019, in the presence of the contestants. After counting, Aditya Gupta, DH Deshpande, DK Garg, Dharmesh Arora, Harish Bansal, Jaiveer Singh, Mahesh Tanwar, Manish A Panchal, Nitin Garg, PK Bhalla, R Suresh Kumar, Rakesh K Sodhi,
Ravinder Singh, R Rajaram, Satish Kaushik, TD Raghani, TR Mahajan, Vinay Kumar Gupta, Ashok Kumar Seth – co-opted, Gagan Sign – co-opted, BS Rawat – co-opted, were elected as the new Governing Council members.

The consensus was on the same key positions, unanimously the names of S Dayaker Reddy for president, Iqbal Singh for honorary general secretary and Dharam Pal Rawat as treasurer were proposed and approved by the house. During the meeting of the Governing Council held on 21 October 2019, the following were elected as the new office bearers of IPAMA – S Dayaker Reddy, president, Iqbal Singh, general secretary, Dharam Pal Rawat, treasurer, Vinay Kumar Gupta, vice president (North), PK Bhalla, vice president (West), Jaiveer Singh, vice president (East), R Suresh Kumar, vice president (South), Rakesh S Sodhi, joint secretary (East), Satish Kaushik, joint secretary (West), Dharmesh Arora, joint secretary (North), Harish Bansal (South).

The new office bearers expressed their commitment to work as a team for the betterment of the Indian graphic arts industry so that it can compete with the best machinery and equipment available in the global market. They also expressed their commitment to work in close coordination with each other for the growth of the industry. The points discussed included development of Indian printing, packaging and allied machinery manufacturers, to provide or arrange facilities to Indian manufacturers for participation in overseas exhibitions and conferences, to provide necessary assistance to IPAMA members for developing latest technology and encourage them to manufacture machinery and other equipment to meet international standards as also for effective competition with foreign manufacturers, to increase financial assistance to Indian machine manufacturers for participating in Indian and foreign exhibitions and conferences.

They also committed to working towards the formation of the federation of the Indian graphic arts industry so that its voice could be raised at appropriate platforms more forcefully and emphatically. IPAMA has already completed most of the preliminary formalities, including drafting a memorandum and Articles of Association. Some of the associations have also given their consent to be members of the Federation. The members also committed to involve maximum number of printing and packaging machinery manufacturers and enrol them as IPAMA members, to keep transparency and co-ordination between IPAMA members, GC Members, office bearers and all other concerned agencies in day to day functioning of the association, including formulation of new policies and implementation for achieving long term goals, to keep aims and objectives of the association in view for long-term planning and implementation relating to promotion of its members.

IPAMA will introduce two new sections, signage and LED, at PrintPack 2021. The partner for the signage section is Sonal Khurana. As of now, 187 exhibitor bookings have been confirmed for the upcoming show. With the global acceptance of Indian products and to propel them further in the international market, IPAMA introduced the ‘Go Global’ initiative under which it will enable Indian exhibitors and IPAMA members to participate in international exhibitions. Around five IPAMA members participated in Print Philippines from 2-5 October 2019 and more than 20 members participated in Printech Bangladesh from 10-12 October 2019.

2023 promises an interesting ride for print in India

Indian Printer and Publisher founded in 1979 is the oldest B2B trade publication in the multi-platform and multi-channel IPPGroup. While the print and packaging industries have been resilient in the past 33 months since the pandemic lockdown of 25 March 2020, the commercial printing and newspaper industries have yet to recover their pre-Covid trajectory.

The fragmented commercial printing industry faces substantial challenges as does the newspaper industry. While digital short-run printing and the signage industry seem to be recovering a bit faster, ultimately their growth will also be moderated by the progress of the overall economy. On the other hand book printing exports are doing well but they too face several supply-chain and logistics challenges.

The price of publication papers including newsprint has been high in the past year while availability is diminished by several mills shutting down their publication paper and newsprint machines in the past four years. Indian paper mills are also exporting many types of paper and have raised prices for Indian printers. To some extent, this has helped in the recovery of the digital printing industry with its on-demand short-run and low-wastage paradigm.

Ultimately digital print and other digital channels will help print grow in a country where we are still far behind in our paper and print consumption and where digital is a leapfrog technology that will only increase the demand for print in the foreseeable future. For instance, there is no alternative to a rise in textbook consumption but this segment will only reach normality in the next financial year beginning on 1 April 2023.

Thus while the new normal is a moving target and many commercial printers look to diversification, we believe that our target audiences may shift and change. Like them, we will also have to adapt with agility to keep up with their business and technical information needs.

Our 2023 media kit is ready, and it is the right time to take stock and reconnect with your potential markets and customers. Print is the glue for the growth of liberal education, new industry, and an emerging economy. We seek your participation in what promises to be an interesting ride.

– Naresh Khanna

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