Gautham Pai of Manipal Technologies, GlobaLocal podcast. Photo GBO
German Book Office New Delhi has been working closely with the publishing and creative industries of India and its neighbouring countries. The goal is to grow literary and rights exchange, facilitate business and of course to showcase India and South Asia at the publishing and creative industry’s largest trade event worldwide.
Globalocal Talks: A Podcast Series, features entrepreneurs, authors and leaders making an impact on the publishing industry and the creative sectors internationally. We dive into what it takes to succeed, especially, in tough conditions. We seek out lessons from publishing experts to content creating entrepreneurs. We are happy to announce that GBO New Delhi has launched Season 2 of Globalocal Talks: A Podcast Series and the new episode is out now. This episode of Globalocal Talks features Gautham Pai, managing director, Manipal Technologies. Pai shares the journey of the company that started as a small printing press and has now grown into one of the largest end-to-end secure print service providers with offices spread across 4 continents.
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.
